May 30, 2017
Macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness worldwide.
This, especially in the aging population: you reach a certain age,
and you can't see as well as before. Up until this point, there has
been no cure for macular degeneration. In the late stages of the
illness, people are declared legally blind.
Enter BioTimeInc.
Francois Binette, head of product development, explains. “The cells
that are keeping the photoreceptors healthy and happy are called
the ‘retinal pigmented epithelial' (RPE) cells.” With aging, or
disease, these cells can degenerate. Without RPE cells, the eye
can't maintain its photoreceptors, and a person's vision blurs and
fades. “We have a very robust process of making these [RPE] cells,”
explains Binette.
Listen now to find out how BioTimeInc. creates and employs RPE
cells to cure blindness in aging adults.
Bio:
Dr. François Binette is Head of Global Development for Biotime Inc.
Dr. Binette has over 20 years of experience driving innovation in
regenerative medicine therapy development. During his first
industry appointment at Genzyme Tissue Repair in Cambridge, he
helped pioneer Carticel™ for cartilage repair, the first FDA
BLA-approved cell therapy product for human use. He then led
R&D for Biosyntech, a startup biomaterials company in Montreal
applying its proprietary platform for various tissue engineering
and drug delivery applications. His systematic approach to
demonstrating proof of principle in various indications brought
numerous corporate partnership deals helping Biosyntech through a
public offering. Dr. Binette then joined the DePuy Franchise of
Johnson and Johnson, the second largest orthopedic business
worldwide. Dr. Binette led several innovative regenerative medicine
combination product development initiatives from bench top to
approved clinical trials in US and Europe. Following JNJ, Dr.
Binette joined the Spinal and Biologics business unit of Medtronic,
the world’s largest medical device company, developing biologics,
active devices and combination products for interventional spine
procedures for back pain. Dr Binette received his PhD from Laval
University in Québec City, followed with post-doctoral training at
the Sanford-Burnham institute in La Jolla, and Harvard Medical
School in Boston.