Protein Transduction Geron Purchases Roslin Bio-Med. This merger will marry the technologies of somatic cell cloning which gave rise to Dolly with the complementary telomerase and embryonic stem cell expertise of Geron for use in cell, tissue and organ transplants for the treatment of degenerative diseases. Degenerative diseases that may be targeted include cancer, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, spinal chord injury and Parkinson's disease. This research funding has been allocated for nuclear transfer work and the characterization of animal genomes. Geron Bio-Med will concentrate in the short term on developing animal derived cells, tissues and organs as replacement therapies for xenotransplantation.
Xenotransplantation is the transplantation of tissues from animals to humans.
It appears that Geron has refocused from telomerase based therapeutics targeted at cancer and aging to teaming its telomerase technologies with nuclear transfer and stem cell technology to produce immortal cell lines for reintroduction as transplants. The potential of these combined technologies is substantial. It appears that Geron is not content to rely solely upon the proprietary telomerase technologies but is allying this expertise with complementary technologies. The Geron merger with Roslin has added some powerful intellectual capital to Geron. I look forward to further developments resulting from the teaming of this technologies in the next few years.