INTERVIEW-BrainStorm seeks to fight ALS with stem cells

 TEL AVIV, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Israeli start-up BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics is aiming to be the first to market with stem cell treatments for neurological disorders, the company said.

Unlike researchers experimenting with embryonic stem cells, an issue that has stoked a great deal of controversy, BrainStorm (BCLI.OB: Quote, Profile, Research) uses stem cells taken from the bone marrow of adults.

"Because we are dealing with adult stem cells from an easily accessible tissue -- the bone marrow -- and because we can isolate and expand them to huge numbers and because the patient will be his own donor, we think we have a chance to be first to market with our stem cells," Eldad Melamed, head of neurology at the Rabin Medical Center near Tel Aviv, told Reuters.

Melamed, who is a member of the scientific advisory board at the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, leads BrainStorm's scientific team along with cell biologist Daniel Offen, head of Tel Aviv University's neuroscience laboratory.

The use of embryonic stem cells has raised a storm of controversy due to religious, ethical and political issues involved in harvesting cells from embryos.

Ironically, in the Jewish state of Israel embryonic stem cell research is less controversial, noted BrainStorm's ultra-orthodox president, Chaim Lebovits.

Still, the company said it has decided to concentrate on adult stem cells because they are also easier to control than embryonic cells, which can give rise to tumours.

Critics of adult stem cell technology say it can provide a limited amount of starting material. Melamed disputes this.

"We have learned how to isolate them ... From one donation of bone marrow we can produce millions of stem cells," he said.

TARGETS PARKINSON'S, ALS

BrainStorm is focusing its research on Parkinson's, which affects 4 million people in the West, as well as amyelotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease or motor neurone disease.

Because ALS is terminal and considered an orphan disease afflicting an average of two out of 100,000 people a year, BrainStorm believes it can move faster with its ALS treatment.

"People with Parkinson's can live many years. With ALS patients have very limited survival time so we want to take a rapid track," Melamed said. "We are desperate. When I diagnose a patient with ALS I can't sleep at night."

On Monday, the company said it is initiating a series of safety studies using its stem cells for ALS. In pilot studies conducted on mice with mutated human genes and the most common model of the disease, preliminary results showed a significant improvement in motor function, the company said.

"We want to finish toxicology studies in animals and reach clinical study as soon as possible. We aim to do a study in Israel and the U.S. we hope within a year," Melamed said.

BrainStorm's shares are traded over the counter but the company plans to list on Nasdaq in the future.

"I believe even before we get to clinical trials we have a good chance to trade on Nasdaq," Lebovits said.

Lebovits became president of BrainStorm in July when a subsidiary of his company ACC Holdings, which is involved in oil exploration in the Ivory Coast and gold and uranium mining in Burkina Faso, invested $5 million in the cash-strapped start-up.

Lebovits, who is also busy taking ACC's oil subsidiary C&L Natural Resources public in Toronto, said BrainStorm has just named former Nice Systems (NICE.O: Quote, Profile, Research) vice president Rami Efrati as chief executive and is looking for a chairman with a biotech background.

AIG Inc. (AIG.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Vice Chairman Jacob Frenkel and Lehman Brothers former vice chairman Harvey Krueger are members of the company's advisory board.

ACC paid 18.8 cents a share, when the company's market capitalisation was about $8 million. Its shares are now at 93 cents.

"We are not trying to jump but to gradually grow based on solid scientific developments," Lebovits said.

 

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