SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 4, 2015) - Regen BioPharma Inc. (OTCBB: RGBP) (OTC PINK: RGBP) announced today the appointment of Dr. Hinrich Gronemeyer, Dr. William S. Blaner, and Dr. Louise Purton to its Scientific Advisory Board. These three experts in the field of retinoid biology have been recruited by Regen BioPharma, Inc. in order to provide the Company with the expertise necessary to accelerate Regen's differentiation therapy small molecule drug discovery platform. This platform aims to design small molecules that can induce differentiation of cancer stem cells by designing ligands to nuclear receptors involved in maintaining stem cell properties of cancer stem cells.
The addition of experts from the retinoid field to the Company's SAB occurred subsequent to data presented by Regen BioPharma Inc.'s at the American Association for Cancer Researcher's 2015 annual meeting which demonstrated that the Company has identified retinoic acid as being a hit in an assay system that screened small molecules with the potential to activate its nuclear receptor target.
"All-trans retinoic acid is one of the best studied and most successful small-molecules used for differentiation therapy. We have selected experts from the retinoid field who can help us draw from the 50 year experience the scientific community has had in the clinical development of retinoic acid, so we can develop small molecule therapeutics that circumvent the pitfalls of retinoic acid. Regen BioPharma is committed to the highest level of scientific standards. To that end we have selected world-class experts in retinoid biology to serve on our SAB," said Thomas Ichim, Chief Scientific Officer.
"We are very excited about the broad expertise that complements each member's expertise. Dr. Purton's expertise in how retinoids interact with blood forming stem cells will ensure that our preclinical development and mechanism of action studies are held to the highest level of scientific standard. Dr. Blaner background in metabolism, and Dr. Gronemeyer's extensive expertise in studying how small molecule retinoid ligands bind to their nuclear receptor target will provide us with invaluable insight during the preclinical stages of drug development and help us develop more potent and safer therapeutics," said David Koos, Chairman and CEO of Regen BioPharma Inc.
The following is a description of the new members:
Dr. Hinrich Gronemeyer is a research director at the Institute of Genetics, Cellular & Molecular Biology (IGBMC) in Strasbourg-Illkirch. Dr. Gronemeyer is a Research Director (Class 'Exceptional') of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and was Privatdozent at the University Karlsruhe. Hinrich Gronemeyer had extensive collaborations with the pharmaceutical industry (Bristol Myers Squibb, Roussel-Uclaf, Schering AG, etc.) and has been involved in evaluations and brainstormings of several major companies. His 189 publications received an average citation of 83.34 and an h-factor of 59. Hinrich GRONEMEYER has long-standing experience in the field of nuclear receptors. His team has contributed to pioneering work on nuclear receptors in health and disease, and their therapeutic intervention by modulation of the design of ligands with different functionalities.
Dr. William S. Blaner is Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Columbia University where he studies the metabolism and actions of retinoids. He has extensive experience with metabolism of retinoids and has pioneered the dogma on how nuclear receptor ligands like retinoic acid and carotenoids are metabolized. He obtained a PhD in 1979 from the University of Tennessee and is an author on more than 200 publications.
Dr. Louise Purton is Associate Professor at the St. Vincent's Institute of Medical Research at the University of Melbourne and is Co-Head of the Stem Cell Regulation Unit and an Associate Director at the Institute. Her laboratory is focused on researching how retinoic acid affects stem cells in the bone marrow in healthy or leukemic states. Dr. Purton received her doctoral degrees from the University of Melbourne and did a post doc in hematology/oncology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington USA. She has more than 40 publications including several in prestigious journals like Journal of Clinical Investigation and Cell Stem Cell, including work that established the hematopoietic stem cell niche.
ABOUT REGEN BIOPHARMA INC.: Regen BioPharma Inc. is a publicly traded biotechnology company (OTCBB: RGBP) (OTC PINK: RGBP). The Company is focused on identifying undervalued regenerative medicine applications in the stem cell space and rapidly advancing these technologies through pre-clinical and Phase I/ II clinical trials. Currently the Company is focused on gene silencing therapy for treating cancer, telomeres and small molecule therapies, along with developing stem cell treatments for aplastic anemia. Regen is majority controlled by Bio-Matrix Scientific Group Inc. (OTC PINK: BMSN).
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