RegenTec awarded £1m

The Wellcome Trust has awarded almost £1m to RegenTec to develop commercial products in the rapidly developing field of regenerative medicine.

Nottingham-based RegenTec was created to build on the research carried out by scientists at Nottingham University. With support from the East Midlands Development Agency, the company has invented a material that works with stem cells and biopharmaceuticals to stimulate the regeneration of tissue in patients.

When injected into the body the material forms a highly porous scaffold structure, which encourages new tissues to form.

The scaffold mechanism also assists the delivery of stem cells and drugs without compromising their effectiveness. This offers a substantial opportunity to deliver a cure to patients with bone, liver, heart or nerve tissue defects.

Professor Kevin Shakesheff, Chief Scientific Officer at RegenTec, and Director of The Centre for Biomolecular Sciences at The University of Nottingham, said: “The ability to inject these scaffold materials could significantly reduce the need for invasive surgery in tissue repair.