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International Stem Cell Corp. (ISCO) to Conduct Clinical Trial with One of the World’s Leading Brain Research Centers

International Stem Cell Corp., a clinical stage biotech company developing novel stem cell-based therapies, has signed a master clinical research agreement with the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health to conduct phase I/IIa clinical trial, dose escalation trial of human parthenogenetic stem cells-derived neural stem cells (ISC-hpNSC) in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients. ISCO said it expects to enroll all patients into the clinical trial in the first quarter of 2016, with interim results available in October.

ISCO is well-paired with the Florey Institute, which is staffed with the largest neuroscience research team in Australia and ranked as one of the world’s leading brain research centers. Also participating in the clinical study is Dr. Andrew Evans, M.D., director of the Movement Disorders Service at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, who will be the study’s principal investigator. Dr. Evans heads numerous clinical research trials, and has extensively published on PD, particularly addressing symptoms that impact on the quality of life of sufferers. He is also a member of the Melbourne Health Ethics Committee.

“We recently received authorization to initiate phase I/IIa and now we are moving forward towards formal engagement of the clinical site to conduct this study. We are excited to work together with the Florey to conduct the clinical trials of ISC-hpNSC at the Royal Melbourne Hospital,” Russell Kern, PhD, executive vice president and chief scientific officer of ISCO, stated in the news release.

ISC-hpNSC consists of a highly pure population of neural stem cells derived from human parthenogenetic stem cells. Preclinical studies in rodents and non-human primates have shown improvement in PD symptoms and increase in brain dopamine levels following the intracranial administration of ISC-hpNSC. ISC-hpNSC are safe, well-tolerated and do not cause adverse events such as dyskinesia, systemic toxicity or tumors in preclinical models.

ISCO is also exploring ISC-hpNSC’s potential in broad therapeutic applications for many neurological diseases affecting the brain, the spinal cord and the eye.

For more information, visit www.internationalstemcell.com

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