has announced a collaboration with the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health under which they will develop tissue therapies for the treatment of neurological diseases.
Tessara said the initial focus will be on the development of tissue therapy TTX‑001 for Parkinson's disease (PD). Development work at the Florey Institute will take place in the laboratories of Professor David Finkelstein, the head of the Parkinson's Disease Laboratory, and Professor Paul Adlard, the head of the Synaptic Neurobiology Laboratory.
TTX-001 is an off-the-shelf, dopamine-replacement and neuroprotective RealBrain micro-tissue therapy under development as a disease-modifying and regenerative treatment with improved clinical and quality-of-life outcomes for patients living with PD.
TTX-001 is derived from Tessara's RealBrain Regenerative Medicine platform that produces tissue therapies consisting of pre-formed highly reproducible allogenic micro-tissues with established neural networks and human brain extracellular matrix.
Tessara said these tissue therapies are designed to secrete therapeutic factors to address key deficiencies associated with PD pathophysiology and other neurological diseases.
After implantation, the micro-tissues stay confined to the brain area of interest, while the extracellular matrix of the implants acts as a scaffold to enable integration with the native brain tissue and induce its regeneration. With controlled micro-environments, pre-formed neural networks, and optimised scalable manufacturing, TTX-001 offers significant therapeutic, safety and commercial advantages over current cell therapy approaches for the treatment of PD.
Tessara said it plans to develop a pipeline of tissue therapy candidates targeting a range of neurological diseases with high unmet medical need.
CEO Dr Christos Papadimitriou said, "Tessara is excited to engage with the Florey Institute, and extremely grateful to Professors Finkelstein and Adlard for their willingness to contribute their expertise to our company. We are motivated by the therapeutic promise of our RealBrain® technology to develop TTX-001 as an important treatment for Parkinson's disease patients."
Professor Finkelstein said, "Having worked in the field of Parkinson's disease and cell therapies for many years, I am impressed with the potential therapeutic advantages of the RealBrain tissue therapy platform and TTX-001 as an innovative next generation therapeutic to treat Parkinson's Disease."
Professor Adlard added, "New innovations such as the RealBrain® technology are critical to discovering and developing new therapeutics for a broad range of neurological conditions with unmet medical needs. I look forward to seeing the outcomes of our collaboration and ultimately the impact that new therapeutics can bring to people's lives."
