Sertoli Technologies Inc.
The Sertoli Technologies Inc. technology is based on work at the University of Tennessee Medical Center that showed Sertoli cells protect foreign islets from rejection by producing immune inhibitors directly at the graft site.
The technology harnesses Sertoli cells' natural ability to modulate the immune system to create a local immunoprivileged site for therapeutic-cell transplantation and cell-based gene therapy. Sertoli cells protect themselves and other co-transplanted cell types from destruction by the host's immune system without the need for chronic use of immunosuppressive drugs. This technology enables treatment of life-threatening diseases caused by a patient's impaired ability to produce a protein, such as insulin in diabetes or factor XIII in hemophilia, by implanting cellular "factories" that supply the missing therapeutic factor.
STI has been developing products to treat insulin-dependent diabetes and hemophilia. The University of Alberta-Edmonton is an STI research collaborator.
In March 2004, Sertonex Inc., in London, Ontario, Canada, incorporated and licensed a portfolio of more than 20 patents for the therapeutic use of the Sertoli cell technology from STI. Sertonex is planning to build on the numerous studies completed by STI and its collaborators with the ultimate goal to gain regulatory approval in North American, European and Japanese markets.
In May 2006, STI licensed exclusively to Pheremone Sciences Corp., now Sernova Corp., all patents and patent applications for the therapeutic use of Sertoli cell technology. Pheremone also acquired an interest in Sertonix. The British Columbia company plans to initially develop the technology to treat insulin-dependent diabetes.
Inventor/Founder
Helena P. Selawry, M.D., formerly at the University of Tennessee Medical Center and VA Medical Center, Memphis
STI Contact
Shaun A. Kirkpatrick, RCT President and CEO; STI Chairman