VistaGen Therapeutics Names Dr. Matthew W. Kalnik as Executive Vice President.Seasoned Biopharmaceutical Executive Will Head Business Development Initiatives for Emerging Stem Cell stem cell In living organisms, an undifferentiated cell that can produce other cells that eventually make up specialized tissues and organs. There are two major types of stem cells, embryonic and adult. Technology Leader BURLINGAME, Calif. -- VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc., a platform-enabled biopharmaceutical company using embryonic stem cell Embryonic stem cells (ES cells) are stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of an early stage embryo known as a blastocyst. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4-5 days post fertilization, at which time they consist of 50-150 cells. ES cells are pluripotent. technologies for drug discovery and development, has named Matthew W. Kalnik, Ph.D., as Executive Vice President, Head of Business Development. Dr. Kalnik is a pharmaceutical and biotechnology executive with 17 years of global experience in drug discovery, development and commercialization. Prior to joining VistaGen, he served as Senior Vice President, Business Development & Licensing at Genaissance, Executive Director, Global Business Management, Head of Pharmacogenomics Pharmacogenomics is the branch of pharmacology which deals with the influence of genetic variation on drug response in patients by correlating gene expression or single-nucleotide polymorphisms with a drug's efficacy or toxicity. Commercialization and Director of Technology Acquisitions, Group Research at Pharmacia/Pfizer, and Senior Director, Technology Development at Daiichi Medical Research. He has also authored over a dozen primary research papers. Dr. Kalnik commented, "I am very pleased to join VistaGen because of its strong management team and leading embryonic stem-cell based platform that is already delivering a rich set of novel, functionally-relevant targets and drug candidates in metabolic and neurological diseases. VistaGen's toxicity assessment capabilities are unique to the industry and will enable clinically-relevant biological screens to be introduced earlier in the process, helping us and our biotechnology and pharmaceutical partners to manage the high risk and cost of drug development." "Dr. Kalnik adds significant expertise to our team at this critical point in VistaGen's growth," said H. Ralph Snodgrass, Ph.D., VistaGen's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are now well-positioned to leverage our core embryonic stem cell technologies to establish multiple strategic drug discovery and development partnerships and predictive toxicology toxicology, study of poisons, or toxins, from the standpoint of detection, isolation, identification, and determination of their effects on the human body. Toxicology may be considered the branch of pharmacology devoted to the study of the poisonous effects of drugs. collaborations involving fully-differentiated, functional human heart, nerve, liver and insulin-producing beta-islet cells. Dr. Kalnik is the right person to lead our corporate outreach program that is focused on commercializing our stem cell platform in collaborations with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies Top 100 Biotechnology Companies The following is a list of the top 100 biotechnology companies ranked by revenue. The first nine companies qualify for the list of the top 50 pharmaceutical companies. worldwide." VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc. is a platform-enabled, biopharmaceutical company pioneering the use of embryonic stem cells ("ES Cells") as proprietary biological systems for drug discovery and development. VistaGen's core technology is an ES Cell-based platform that could offer a renewable source of breakthrough small molecule drugs and protein therapeutics for a wide variety of diseases, including diabetes and multiple neurological disorders This is a list of major and frequently observed neurological disorders (e.g. Alzheimer's disease), symptoms (e.g.back pain), signs (e.g. aphasia) and syndromes (e.g. Aicardi syndrome). such as neuropathic neuropathic /neu·ro·path·ic/ (-path´ik) pertaining to or characterized by neuropathy. neuropathic pertaining to disease of the nervous system. pain, Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease or Parkinsonism, degenerative brain disorder first described by the English surgeon James Parkinson in 1817. When there is no known cause, the disease usually appears after age 40 and is referred to as Parkinson's disease. and epilepsy. VistaGen's customized ES Cell-based biological assays and screening systems help discover, validate and prioritize novel drug targets, as well as identify the biological function and potential therapeutic utility of new small molecule drug and protein therapeutic candidates with greater efficiency compared to traditional industry techniques. VistaGen recently announced positive results from preclinical studies preclinical studies, n.pl a term used to describe research done before a clinical study. May be laboratory or epidemiologic research. of AV-101, its lead drug candidate, in animal models of neuropathic pain, as well as studies relevant to Parkinson's disease. These preclinical studies suggest that AV-101, a first-in-class prodrug prodrug /pro·drug/ (-drug) a compound that, on administration, must undergo chemical conversion by metabolic processes before becoming an active pharmacological agent; a precursor of a drug. , has the potential to treat pain caused by nerve damage associated with diabetes, viral infections, injuries, and cancer, and potentially the symptoms associated with Parkinson's disease. |
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