Research lab aims
to refine tissue culture
processes
Patients needing replacement tissue because of injuries, cancer, cardiovascular or other diseases may benefit from a new laboratory that has taken over the 11th floor of the former Gold Bond Building at 677 Ala Moana.
Tissue Genesis Inc. chose that location to be next to the University of Hawaii John A. Burns Medical School going up in Kakaako, said Anton Krucky, president and chief executive officer.
The company, which opened its office this week, had been discussing a research collaboration with UH and Medical School Dean Edwin Cadman for several years, Krucky said.
"We look, in their words, as one of the prototypes of companies they want to surround the medical school as they do their part in developing a biotechnology industry," he said.
The company has about 20 full-time employees and collaborative scientists in Oregon, Michigan and Maryland working on different research projects.
The researchers represent years of experience in developing cell culture systems, including those flown on 17 NASA shuttle missions and used on land to expand and grow tissues for replacement, the company said.
Krucky, who was general operations manager for IBM in the Pacific for 15 years, said Tissue Genesis is focusing on three major areas: vascular grafts using elastin (an elastic protein), tissues for tendon and ligament replacements, and automatic cell and tissue culture in what is known as a bio-optimization system.
Paul Kosnik, vice president of engineering, said traditional tissue culture done manually by technicians is "pretty archaic and holding back cutting-edge technologies."
The culture process is automated in the new system being developed by Tissue Genesis, so that the cells develop more like natural tissue, he said.
The company receives $5 million a year in U.S. Defense Department grants because of its interest in applying the biotechnology to military personnel, Kosnik said. He is a Brown University adjunct professor and visiting scientist to the Harvard/MIT Human Sciences and Technology Program.
Tissue engineering and cell therapy is the fastest-growing area in the medical field, with a world market predicted to be $300 billion to $400 billion a year in 20 years, Kosnik said.
Tissue Genesis research involves not only generating new tissue or improving existing tissue, but developing tissue outside the body for replacement, he said.
For example, he said, the Food and Drug Administration has approved five living-skin tissue replacements used for someone with a severe burn or skin injury who does not have sufficient graft material in the body.
Currently, Krucky said, grafts of living skin or a vein are taken from a leg or part of the body to replace a tendon.
"Our engineering takes it much further. ... It's not an artificial piece, like a pin put in a knee," he said. "It's like tendon with cells. It becomes replacement tendon."
The company is developing a graft alternative for coronary bypass that it says could potentially restore vascular function in damaged tissue and improve blood flow. In addition, it is engineering an elastin-based scaffold as a framework for cellular growth in grafts.
