BioLamina engages Dr. Stephen Minger as Scientific Advisor

BioLamina (Stockholm) manufactures and sells high quality products for primary cell culture based on human recombinant laminins. In 2014 several publications including two in the Nature Group showed that the biologically relevant protein for embryonic stem cells, Laminin-521, can be used to proliferate pluripotent cells efficiently in a genetically stable way. In addition, initial data shows laminins have potential to help stem cells differentiate towards a variety of cell types, which BioLamina now wants to pursue. 

BioLamina’s long-term goal is to provide a portfolio of high quality, easy to use, products and services for primary cell culture within research, drug discovery models and cell therapy. To reach this goal, BioLamina needs to focus on the right products and deliver them with the right quality. Dr. Minger’s role will be to help direct and prioritize this work, to ensure release of quality products in a timely fashion. He will work closely with our scientists and executive management.

“Dr. Minger has extensive experience of both the research towards cell therapy and development of cell lines for drug discovery both in industry and academia, which makes him very unique in the field and the perfect Scientific Advisor for BioLamina”, comments Dr. Kristian Tryggvason, CEO and Co-Founder of Biolamina. He continues, “We are honored that Dr. Minger joined our team as a Scientific Advisor and we look forward working closely with him.”

“One of the most critical components in successful development of cells for therapy or drug discovery is the quality of the reagents used in the process”, comments Dr. Minger, “BioLamina strives to deliver biologically functional reagents of high quality, which is something needed within our industry.”

For more information:

BIOLAMINA AB

Kristian Tryggvason, CEO Telephone +46 8 5888 5181

E-post: communications@biolamina.com

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ABOUT BIOLAMINA AB

BioLamina commercializes innovations that solve technical problems within the culturing of embryonic stem cells and other types of primary cells. Many of the products are based on human recombinant proteins called laminins. These laminins provide these cells a natural environment when they are first used to coat the plastic cell culture dishes. Many different types of cells thrive on these laminins because these same proteins surround different types of cells also in the human body. These and other innovations together solve many of the technical problems like reproducibility and low cell quality and therefore help development of new cell therapies. BioLamina was founded 2009.

For more information: www.biolamina.com

ABOUT STEPHEN MINGER

Dr. Stephen Minger was appointed the Global Director for Research and Development for Cell Technologies at GE Healthcare in September 2009. Stephen received his PhD in Pathology (Neurosciences) in 1992 from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. After post-doctoral work in central nervous system gene therapy, neural transplantation and neural stem cell biology at UCSD with Professor Fred “Rusty” Gage, he moved to the UK in 1996 and was appointed a Lecturer in Biomolecular Sciences at King's College London in 1998. He was appointed a Senior Lecturer in Stem Cell Biology in 2005 and was the Director of the Stem Cell Biology Laboratory from 2002 until joining GE Healthcare in 2009.

Over the past 20 years, Stephen’s research group has been at the forefront of human stem cell research. In 2002, together with Professor Peter Braude and Dr Susan Pickering, his group was the first to deposit a human ES cell line into the UK Stem Cell Bank. He was actively involved with the UK Department of Health and with the Minister for Public Health in the consultation with both Houses of Parliament that led to the passage of the Human Embryo Bill of 2009 and the inclusion of new forms of animal-human embryos within primary legislation. 

Stephen was the Stem Cell Expert and a Member of the UK Gene Therapy Advisory Committee (GTAC) at the Department of Health from 2006-2012 and was the Focal Point for Regenerative Medicine, Drug Discovery and Modernization of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China for the UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills from 2006-2009, and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Canadian Centre for the Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine. 

In the summer of 2013, Stephen was appointed Chief Scientist for Cellular Sciences, GE Healthcare Life Sciences, and is responsible for long-term global research strategy for technology development in cell therapy, regenerative medicine, cellular technologies, in vivo diagnostic imaging and molecular pathology/personalized medicine.