Intrexon, a company focused on synthetic biology, will acquire San Diego-based Medistem for approximately $26 million.

Medistem develops Endometrial Regenerative Cells, universal donor adult stem cells that stimulate new blood vessel formation and are capable of generating different tissues including heart, brain, pancreas, liver, bone, cartilage and lung. Intrexon intends to employ its integrated synthetic biology platforms to engineer a diverse array of cell-based therapeutic candidates using Medistem's multipotent ERCs.

In combination with Intrexon's UltraVector multi-gene engineering, proprietary Cell Systems Informatics, and RheoSwitch Therapeutic System, Medistem's ERCs have the potential to provide treatments for conditions such as cancer, wound healing and cardiovascular disease. ERCs are derived through non-invasive methods, are economical and scalable to manufacture, are superior therapeutically to other stem cell types for select indications based on peer reviewed studies and have been demonstrated to be safe in human studies.

Samuel Broder, M.D., senior vice president of Intrexon's health sector and former director of the National Cancer Institute, noted that through the use of Intrexon's technology, ERCs could be gene-modified to secrete powerful therapeutic effectors.

Thomas Reed, Ph.D., Intrexon's chief science officer, said Intrexon's platform could be greatly expanded by having the ability to produce clinical grade adult stem cells.

"Through the integration of Medistem's ERC cell platform into our existent broad technology portfolio, we plan to develop two powerful classes of clinical products," said Reed. "This includes engineering stem cells for therapeutic delivery of secreted proteins, or for producing exosomes, which can be used to deliver several types of therapeutically relevant molecules, including miRNAs and proteins."

Medistem stockholders will receive in exchange for each share of Medistem common stock $0.27 in cash and $1.08 worth of Intrexon common stock.