PRESS RELEASE 15-10-2006: Biogenea – CellGenea Ltd a leading provider of stem cells bioservices today announced the company’s continuing expansion with new offices in Larissa on Panagouli str. 10.

Biogenea – CellGenea Ltd a leading provider of stem cells bioservices today announced the company’s continuing expansion with new offices in Larissa in October 2006.The opening of new offices enables Biogenea-CellGenea Ltd to provide better support and services for its existing customers as well as position the company for additional growth on Central Greece. Adult stem cells improve healing of broken bones and could eventually serve as a new treatment up to the 20 to 30 percent of fractures that fail to heal, according to a new study.  Researchers believe a key reason for bone union failure may be a deficiency in adult stem cells, which normally become reparative cells in response to damage. These adult stem cells, which can be obtained from a patient’s periosteum (esp. cambium layer) in a minimally invasive procedure, may improve fracture healing in many patients. “We are extremely pleased to be opening offices in Larissa which is an important piece of our Greece’s wide strategy,” said Nikolaos Grigoriadis president and CEO of Biogenea-Cellgenea.

These new offices will mainly support the program and the continuation of future joint activities which focused on the regrowing of cartilage and support first clinical trial using stem cells to try to regenerate the knee’s shock absorber, a cartilage pad called the meniscus. Doctors are testing new ways to spur cartilage to regrow in damaged knees, from implanted “cartilage plugs” to injections of mesenchymal stem cells. The need is huge. Knees are the joint most likely to go bad, and the cartilage that cushions them has only a limited natural ability to repair itself.

 The potential new healing options are being tried first in people who injured their knees and thus need small amounts of cartilage to regrow. But if they truly work, the techniques one day might offer hope for arthritis sufferers, too, whose cartilage over time completely erodes.  These new offices will also support Biogenea- Cellgenea’s new efforts of winning basic researchers and medical advisors for the improvement of the healing of the broken bones using periosteum derived adult stem cells.  “Our study will provide critical scientific data needed to implement a novel therapeutic adult stem cell therapy and an innovative treatment approach in patients with impaired fracture healing,” John Grigoriadis Vice President of Biogenea-Cellgenea Ltd added.