UCL Business plc and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust (RNOH) have signed an agreement with Sewon Cellontech (SC) of South Korea to collaborate on new laboratories that will develop clinical cell therapeutic treatments for cartilage repair and bone fracture healing. The techniques use stem cells derived from the patient's own bone marrow and cartilage tissue with the potential to alleviate the need for radical surgery.
The UCL Institute of Orthopaedics and Musculoskeletal Science (IONS) at the RNOH Stanmore, will be the location for the new stem cell regenerative medical laboratories. It is the intention that a joint-venture company will be established between SC and UCL Business. SC plan to provide an investment of £1m to establish a fully-equipped state of the art laboratory to develop stem cells for clinical orthopaedic procedures while UCL Business will secure the funding of an equivalent amount for the provision of commercial infrastructure. It is envisaged that, with the IONS and its world-leading academics, other cell therapies will feed into the new facility for the benefit of future patients. All of these therapies will be clinically trialled at the RNOH Stanmore.
It is anticipated that this new joint-venture company will lead to the creation of a new technologically advanced enterprise that will be of benefit to the UK's knowledge-driven economy, and it is expected that the therapies developed will lead to significant cost savings for the NHS through a reduction in patient recovery times and rehabilitation costs, also giving patients an enhanced quality of life
Professor Mike Spyer, UCL's Vice Provost for Enterprise, said: "The transfer of knowledge for the benefit of the community is a high priority for UCL. We believe a developing partnership with Sewon Cellontech, through the creation of a joint venture company will lead to positive outcomes for the university and society in general."
Cengiz Tarhan, MD for UCL Business, added: "It is extremely gratifying to bring together the research base of UCL, the translational research being conducted at RNOH and the very encouraging patient applications of Sewon Cellontech's products to create an opportunity for the benefit of all".
Mr. Cheong Ho-Chang, chairman of Sewon Cellontech, said: "Regenerative medical systems are for the whole world. We wish to advance the field of cell therapy to bridge the gap between pure research and patient wellbeing and we are pleased to partner with UCL in this regard."
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About UCL
Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government's most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence.
UCL is the fourth-ranked UK University in the 2006 league table of the top 500 world Universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Mahatma Gandhi (Laws 1889, Indian political and spiritual leader); Jonathan Dimbleby (Philosophy 1969, writer and television presenter); Junichiro Koizumi (Economics 1969, Former Prime Minister of Japan); Lord Woolf (Laws 1954, former Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales); Alexander Graham Bell (Phonetics 1860s, inventor of the telephone), and members of the band Coldplay.
About UCL Business
UCL Business PLC (UCLB) is the organisation responsible for commercialising UCL's pioneering research across all disciplines. It is primarily responsible for transacting commercial activity including options, licences and collaborative commercial research. UCL Business also has responsibility for creating and spinning-out companies from UCL. It is wholly-owned by UCL and operates as an independent company with its own board of directors.
About Sewon Cellontech
Sewon Cellontech has grown and developed consistently maintaining its reputation as a leading engineering company since established in the early 1970's as a pioneer of heavy chemical industry in Korea. From our strong foothold, Sewon Cellontech has completed about 1700 domestic and international projects over past 30 years and has been devoting its utmost efforts toward creating the world's top brand based on innovative technologies from accumulated experience and "Value, Innovation & Creation and Passion" which are required to be a global leader in the 21st century. The company currently retains its own world top-class products in the bio-tech area of Life Engineering and also maintains world class technology including 5 representative products in petrochemistry and plant areas of Chemical Engineering.
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