Aastrom Biosciences, a developer of patient-specific expanded cellular therapies for the treatment of severe diseases and conditions, plans to change its corporate name to Vericel and move its corporate headquarters from Ann Arbor, Mich., to Cambridge, Mass. The corporate name change is subject to the approval of Aastrom's shareholders. Aastrom will continue to maintain manufacturing facilities in Cambridge and Ann Arbor.

"The proposed name change and plan to move our headquarters to Cambridge are the next steps in the transformation of Aastrom from a clinical-stage company to a fully integrated, commercial-stage specialty biologics company," said Nick Colangelo, Aastrom's president and CEO. "The new corporate name reflects our leading position in the cell therapy market, and our expanded presence in the vibrant Cambridge biotechnology community will increase our access to both talent and technology as we continue to grow our company, maximize the potential of our two U.S. marketed products, Carticel and Epicel, and bring our late-stage product candidates, MACI and ixmyelocel-T, to market."