Histide Announces Publication in Nature Materials Revealing Mechanisms Governing Stem Cell Differentiation

Schindellegi, Switzerland, December 2, 2015 / B3C newswire / -- Histide AG, a biotech intellectual property platform company focused on developing Cell Recoding Molecules™, announced today that the results from a collaboration study with Prof. Alan E. Rowan (Radboud University, The Netherlands) were published in the current online edition of Nature Materials.¹

The research article, titled “Stress-stiffening-mediated stem-cell commitment switch in soft responsive hydrogels” introduces a new extracellular parameter, stress stiffening, as an important variable that governs stem cell fate. This work reveals a correlation between the onset of stiffening and the expression of the microtubule associated protein DCAMKL1, thus implicating DCAMKL1 in a stress-stiffening-mediated, mechanostransduction pathway that involves microtubule dynamics in the mechanisms underlying stem cell differentiation and commitment to a specific cell lineage. These results are the first report of a microtubule-associated protein mediating microenvironmental signaling for stem cell fate guidance.

Omar F. Zouani, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at Histide, commented, “This study is an important contribution to our understanding of the role played by the signaling mechanisms regulating microtubule dynamics in stem cell differentiation control. The results therefore validate the currently unexplored extracellular technological potential to treat and heal diseases through precise regulation of microtubule associated proteins.”

Based on its expertise in providing targeted extracellular signals with high specificity for the regulation of microtubule dynamics and associated proteins like DCAMKL1, Histide has created an innovative platform of nonmutagenic extracellular therapeutic agents called Cell Recoding Molecules™ (CRMs) with the capacity to dictate the precise commitment of various cell types. These include cells from different tissue origins and in contrasting stages of differentiation, ranging from stem cells to specialized mature cells. First applications of the CRM technology by Histide were shown to regenerate different types of tissues and support healing of several types of cancer diseases by recoding the tumor cells into healthy and physiologically functional cells.

Histide has developed a broad and disruptive intellectual property portfolio surrounding these CRMs™ and is now looking at developing the full potential of Histide’s overall Recoding Therapeutics platform. Histide has launched several preclinical programs in pharma and medical device indications.

About Histide AG
Histide™ is a biotech intellectual property platform company pioneering a new class of nonmutagenic extracellular therapeutic agents called Cell Recoding Molecules™ (CRMs). This innovative platform builds on Histide’s expertise in the mechanisms underlying the cell’s microenvironmental sensing and signal transduction processes. The CRMs promote and stimulate the cell’s natural capacities to redirect its own fate by integrating accurate extracellular signals. This is at the heart of Histide’s Recoding Therapeutics™, a groundbreaking approach of addressing diseases that goes beyond traditional cell, gene or RNA based therapies. Recoding Therapeutics based treatments will be the closest to natural cell physiology and thus have the potential to provide substantially improved safety and efficacy. This broad platform should be able to address a wide range of altered cell conditions and diseases through the regeneration and healing of a large majority of human tissues.

1. Rajat K. Das^†, Veronika Gocheva^†, Roel Hammink, Omar F. Zouani^* and Alan E. Rowan^*. Stress-stiffening-mediated stem-cell commitment switch in soft responsive hydrogels. Nature Materials, 2015; DOI: 10.1038/NMAT4483.

^†  These authors contributed equally to this work                                                                                                              
*  These authors supervised the work

The publication is co-authored by two of Histide’s scientists: Dr. Veronika Gocheva (Vice President Research) and Dr. Omar F. Zouani (Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer).

Contacts

Histide AG
Dr. Veronika Gocheva
+41 78 956 70 56
contact@histide.com

Instinctif Partners
Dr. Lynne Trowbridge / Daniel Gooch / Dr. Andreas Zunhammer
+44 20 7866 7905
histide@instinctif.com

Link to the press release

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