Leveraging the Therapeutic Potential of Mitochondria
Short Business Description:
When the blood flow to a part of the body is interrupted, cells get damaged or die, even if blood flow is restored. Such cell injuries manifest themselves for example in heart attacks and strokes, killing millions of people every year.
cellvie transplants viable mitochondria, the cell’s powerhouse, into distressed cells. It’s like jump- starting a car, allowing the cells to re-establish their energy metabolism and survive.
The Harvard spinoff’s mitochondria therapy will first be applied in organ transplant patients.
Ischemia-reperfusion injury is the world’s number one killer. It arises when the blood flow to a part of the body is interrupted (ischemia) and subsequently re- introduced (reperfusion). It manifests itself e.g. in heart attacks, strokes, or organ transplantation . There are more than 3 million cases in the US and Europe every year.
Past attempts to treat ischemia-reperfusion injury failed. Their key shortcoming was the inability to address mitochondria dysfunction induced during ischemia. As the mitochondria, the powerhouses of the cell, fail, cell functions deteriorate, leading to cell death.
cellvie’s approach is radically different in that it reinvigorates that failing energy metabolism. Viable mitochondria are transplanted, replacing and augmenting damaged mitochondria. It is like jump- starting a car, allowing the cells to reestablish the energy supply.
As the first indication, the Harvard-spinoff picked organ transplantation, where cellvie expects to increase organ donor availability by up to 30%. Safety and efficacy was established in more than 20 pre-clinical studies and an ongoing clinical pilot at Boston Children’s Hospital. Subsequently, cellvie will pursue heart attacks, with ~1.3M cases in the US and EU.
Cellvie was founded in the US in 2018 by Drs James McCully, Alexander Schueller, Pedro del Nido and Sitaram Emani and is headquartered close to Zürich, Switzerland.