Here are three key updates in the treatment of spinal cord injuries in the past month.
Researchers from Providence, R.I.-based Brown University and Intel are collaborating to develop an Intelligent Spine Interface for spinal cord injuries. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded a $6.3 million grant for the research, which is building on work from Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center at the University of Louisville.
NervGen Pharma is planning its clinical development strategy for its compound, NVG-291, in spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis patients. NVG-291 is a linear peptide comprised of common amino acids. The expansion of its Phase 1 trial on spinal cord injury patients will begin in the second half of 2020.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent for Lineage Cell Therapeutics' stem cell-derived treatment for spinal cord injury. The patent covers processes that involve injecting OPCs obtained from a pluripotent human stem cell line into the spinal cord injury site and covers human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived OPCs.