Medistem, developer of Endometrial Regenerative Cell (ERC), a universal donor adult stem cell product, will collaborate with Reza Abdi, M.D., transplant nephrologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and assistant professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School. The company will provide Abdi with its ERCs and it is expected that his research would support FDA clearance to initiate clinical trials to use ERCs as a treatment for type 1 diabetes. The company has FDA clearance to initiate a dose-escalating phase I clinical trial to use ERCs in patients with critical limb ischemia, a complication of diabetes.

"Currently there are no treatments that reverse type 1 diabetes. ERCs have a great potential to emerge as a cell therapy for type 1 diabetes by blocking the pathological autoimmune process that is causative of the disease," said Abdi.

"An independent study conducted by the NIH has shown that ERCs posses superior ability to modulate immune response as compared to other types of stem cells," said Alan J. Lewis, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Medistem. "In previous studies, ERCs have shown the ability to produce chemical signals that inhibit autoimmune conditions such as type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis."