Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and their derivatives are a critical raw material for a growing number of emerging advanced therapeutic applications, including engineered cell and gene therapies, engineered tissues, combination products, medical devices, and exosome-based therapies. Since 2018, RoosterBio’s Development Award has supported innovative early-stage researchers across these focus areas who share our common goals in emerging advanced therapeutics by providing over $200K in products and process support to accelerate their novel programs.
The 2024 Development Award received a record number of applications from researchers in North America, Europe, Japan, Korea, and Australia advocating for translationally focused early-stage, proof-of-concept, or pre-clinical in vitro or in vivo novel studies related to the MSC and exosome technology space. This included diverse focus areas related to MSCs, iPSC-MSCs, immortalized MSCs, and their derivates for novel therapeutic targets and methodologies. As such, six focus areas were identified for awards this year.
Given the enthusiastic response to this year’s call for applications, RoosterBio is proud to announce the following thirteen award winners and their proposed work which will receive over $100K of combined products:
| MSC/Exosome Pre-Clinical Therapeutic Discovery | |
| Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Derived Exosomes for Treating Medothelin-Expressing Ovarian Cancer | Primary Investigator: Ramesh Babu Batchu, PhD, M. Philosophy (Associate Professor; Director, Division of Surgical Oncology and Developmental Therapeutics)
Co-Investigator: Donald W. Weaver, MD, FACS (Chairman, Department of Surgery) Location: School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Michigan, United States |
| MSC Mitochondria for the Treatment of Degenerative Disc Disease | Primary Investigator: Ashley Cardenas
Additional Investigators: Dr. Lawrence Bonassar Location: Cornell University, New York, United States |
| Devitalized Cellular Aggregates for Immunomodulation | Primary Investigator: Dr. Mariana B. Oliveira
Location: CICECO, Aveiro Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal |
| Novel Exosome Analytical Methods or Potency Models | |
| Granular Hydrogels for The Controlled Delivery of MSC-Derived Immunomodulatory and Angiogenic Extracellular Vesicles to Enhance Bone Tissue Regeneration | Primary Investigator: Dr. Nicole E. Friend
Additional Investigators: Dr. Kristi S. Anseth Location: University of Colorado, Colorado, United States |
| Transcriptome Profile of Cells and Exosomes Between iPSC-Derived iMSCs and Tissue-Specific Primary MSCs | Primary Investigator: Associate Professor Zhen Ma
Location: Syracuse University, New York, United States |
| Therapeutic Efficacy of Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stromal Cells and Derived Extracellular Vesicles in Experimental Myeloperoxidase Anti-Neutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibody Associated Vasculitis | Primary Investigator: Ishmael Inocencio, PhD
Location: Hudson Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, Australia |
| MSC Inclusion in Complex Tissue / Organoid Systems | |
| hMSC-Laden 3D-Printed Constructs to Regenerate Functional Osteochondral Tissues to Treat Early-Stage Osteoarthritis | Primary Investigator: Associate Professor Lesley Chow
Location: Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Engineered or Modified MSC / Exosome Applications | |
| Development of Wnt Ligand-Enriched Exosomes for Targeted Hair Regeneration Therapy | Primary Investigator: Dr. Chi Zhang (Senior Scientist)
Additional Investigators: Dr. Rob Knight (Lead Scientist) Location: Cellese, Inc., California, United States |
| Enhanced Tumor Labeling Using Bioengineered Extracellular Vesicles Derived from MSCs | Primary Investigator: Dr. Masoud Darabi
Location: Dept of Hematology and Oncology, Univ Hospital Schleswig-Holstein |
| Exosome Delivered MicroRNA Modulation to Target Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma | Primary Investigator: Deepak Bhere, PhD (Assistant Professor of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology)
Location: University of South Carolina School of Medicine, South Carolina, United States |
| MSC Applications in Longevity, Oncology, or Fertility | |
| Inducing A Pluripotent MSC State with In-Vivo Regenerative Benefits | Primary Investigator: Brandon Sassouni (CEO)
Location: Revival Bio Inc., Massachusetts, United States |
| Extracellular Vesicle Production / Downstream Processing | |
| Scalable Downstream Platform for the Isolation and Purification of EVs | Primary Investigator: Jamey D. Young, PhD (Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Engineering)
Additional Investigators: Mariachiara Conti, PhD Location: Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, United States |
| Nanofiber-Based Adsorbent to Address Extracellular Vesicle Subpopulation Isolation | Primary Investigator: Emma Burman
Additional Investigators: Professor Daniel Bracewell (UCL), Dr. Bernice Wright (UCL), Dr. Sujeong Yang (Astrea Bioseparations), Ian Scanlon (Astrea Bioseparations) Location: University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom |
Each of these awardees will receive up to $10,000 in select RoosterBio products over a 12-month period to support their program. As part of RoosterBio’s mission to create a world where safe and effective advanced therapies are rapidly developed and widely available on a global scale, they will join the hundreds of academic and therapeutic product developers spending less time culturing cells and more focused on their novel applications – leading to rapidly generating data important for publication and grant submissions. We eagerly look forward to seeing where this work progresses and sharing the results of their efforts in time.