Apr 2 2008
Living Cell Technologies Limited today announced that Dr Paul Tan, LCT CEO and Dr Anil K Anal, LCT Material Scientist, presented data at a session on nanotechnology at the NZBio 2008 Conference in Auckland, New Zealand. Their presentation showcased the company’s proprietary nanobiocapsules which allow encapsulated pig insulin producing cells, DiabeCellR, to be implanted without the use of toxic immune suppressive drugs.
On March 31, the Company reported positive early preliminary data from an on-going Phase I/IIa clinical trial which shows that following implant into patients with insulin dependent diabetes, the encapsulated porcine pancreatic islets remain functioning for at least 6 months and beneficial effects were greater than expected.
Dr Paul Tan said “The positive clinical effects indicate that our technology has succeeded in placing cells into gel capsules which allow oxygen and nutrients to pass inward and insulin to diffuse outward while preventing immune agents from destroying the cells. This was achieved due to the highly selective materials used layer by layer to form the capsule wall with pores of the appropriate size and nanoscale.”
Scientific American describes Nanotechnology as technology which “broadly applies to control of materials and components only a few billionths of a meter in size.” LCT’s nanobiocapsules are the result of controlled chemical reactions that produce molecular structures with pores less than 50 nanometers diameter as seen by atomic force microscopy and confocal laser scanning microscopy.