$250 million raised to develop stem cell therapies

$250 million raised to develop stem cell therapies

Biotech start-up Cellularity has announced that is has raised $250 million in venture capital funds, principally earmarked for harvesting  the human placenta for stem cells in support of multiple new therapeutic uses, including potential cures for cancer.

In a recent interview on CNBC.com, Celularity co-founder and vice chairman Peter Diamandis speaks about the future of cellular medicine, and how scientists are working to re-engineer living cells.

This positive news does however pose the question – what if you missed having your stem cells collected via placenta tissue at birth?

Scott Wolf, President and Director of Research for Grace Century, said “If you missed it at birth, collecting stem cells from dental pulp is the only answer. Our portfolio partner Provia’s dental stem cell storage system Store-A-Tooth collects and stores the same MSC cells from teeth, and enables the cells to be collected much later into life. News likes this can only mean that our industry is going to go mainstream.”

Watch the full video with Peter Diamonds on CNBC.com here.