Value -Add Bioengineering
Progenesis is a bioengineering company producing customized molecular scaffolds, expressed in a versatile and patent-protected bacterial production system. Initial product lines include alginate biopolymers for tissue replacement, including in combinations with other biomatrices. Our patents focus on engineered pseudomonas aeruginosa through molecular biology, where production levels and safety profile have been developed over a five year period in consultation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for use in a variety of human and veterinary health products. Founded by Dr.s Richard Niles and Hongwei Yu, and with support from Marshall University, the National Institutes of Health and private investors, Progenesis is on the cusp of manufacturing breakthrough medical materials for tissue regeneration.
Currently we produce alginates at 20-30 times the concentration found in non-engineered cellular systems, making fermentor scale-up highly competitive to alginates obtained from seaweed sources, which are currently widely used in industrial and medical applications. Uniquely, through our proprietary genetic constructs, Progenesis can control the degrees of fluid absorbance, tensile strength and biocompatibility as a stand-alone product line and in combination with other therapeutic compounds and cellular interventions. An immediate application is bio-printing for medical devices and topical wounds.
These same genetic constructs, highly unique, are now proving useful as novel, long-lasting and universal vaccines against bacterial serotypes. We are probing immunological mechanisms of action, and conducting in vivo proof of concept with disease models relevant to pandemics such as coronavirus.
Progenesis’ alginate products have a fundamental advantage over seaweed derived alginates in cost efficiencies and customization for various applications. A superior therapeutic profile is inherent to our high quality production and purification system. Starting with safety, our recombinant, GMP manufacture controlled environment allows for a highly consistent, pure alginate product through high yield cell culture production and purification cascades developed by the company. With seaweed derived alginates, environmental conditions vary and alter composition, and highly toxic contaminants such as mercury must be tested for and potentially removed, to the extent possible, using expensive methods. These costs on seaweed alginate are increasing as the supply declines due to over-harvesting, pollution and climate change. The supply of seaweed alginate cannot keep up with the demand for its use in a myriad of applications, particularly those with high tech requirements. This has resulted in significant price increase for seaweed alginate of the past five years. Building on our high levels of product safety, we then design and produce customized effectiveness in given applications. For example, topical wound treatment and fluid management call for high degrees of absorbance. Progenesis can engineer “tuneable” absorbance with increased polymer acetylation via patented combinations of plasmid inserts, a potential that seaweed alginate does not offer. Other applications such as connective tissue augmentation may require less absorbance, yet more tensile strength and reduced inflammatory activity, also controllable with our bio-engineering prototypes.
Our company’s vision is to continue scale up and to provide product development candidates and bulk substrates to biopharmaceutical, medical device and industrial customers. The first Progenesis product, a wound dressing alginate, is in final animal (porcine diabetic wound model) testing in conjunction with drafting a 510k marketing approval with the U.S. FDA. The company is in discussions with wound healing product distributors to launch commercially worldwide in 2020. Additional markets include substrates for bio-printing of wound treatments and skin replacements, bio-printing of connective tissue, treatment of acid reflux disease, use of alginates as pharmaceutical excipients in controlled release formulations, food additives as stabilizer agents, nutritional supplements for slowing progression to type 2 diabetes, stabilizers in paper and textile production and agricultural applications as absorbant bulk substrate.
Progenesis received Small Business Innovative Research grant #2R44GM113545-02 from the U.S. National Institues of Health in 2017 for development of its novel products. The Company is also supported by Marshall University and private equity investors. We are building a sustainable revenue stream by applying for market approvals for sale of our products, by licensing technology and selling alginate products. Progenesis is expanding its product portfolio through preclinical testing of therapeutic matrices, and with commercial research-based companies through a series of strategic alliances.
Progenesis is developing for distribution and sale our recombinant alginate for wound treatments. The Progenesis platform allows us to design and produce unique bio-engineered attributes in a unified production system, using the patented cell lines’ own machinery to make large amounts of customized biomolecules. Specifically, we are scaling up material for application in bio-printing of topical wound healing treatments, as part of a consortium of commercial and research organizations sponsored in part by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Once in market on the high end of quality and effectiveness, the potential for Progenesis products to positively impact global needs and provide superior return on investment will establish the company as a leader in the field.
Progenesis Technologies, LLC. 