A Medical Device Daily

CellCyte Genetics (Bothell, Washington) said that a Dec. 24 article published by the Seattle Times reporting on the company's 3Q08 SEC 10Q filing incorrectly stated that CellCyte was closing. The company said that it has had a "great deal of success" and isn't closing its doors.

In an Aug. 14 press release, the company reported progress in its bioreactor business segment and generally described its development plan to commercialize its bioreactor product line. The company said it continues to execute this development plan as described.

"We have been successful in expanding a human hematopoietic cell line that we have used as a model system and have achieved the targeted expansion rates and viability of the cells," said CellCyte Chief Scientific Officer Ronald Berninger, Phd. "We can now manufacture a sufficient number of bioreactors to allow expansion of our tests to more relevant cell types, including umbilical cord blood-derived stem cells and Islet cells."

The company said that these results enable it to proceed with ongoing negotiations with research clinics and companies seeking to use CCG-E45 in their clinical research work. The bioreactor is based on innovative technology that allows the expansion or maintenance of cells under precisely controlled levels of oxygen.

The bioreactor has been successful in expanding or maintaining 10 different cell lines and the company has preliminary data for an additional four cell types. The bioreactor also has been used to produce antibody from a hybridoma cell line in significant quantities and at lower cost than traditional methods.

CellCyte Genetics has two business segments: a device division and the development of therapeutic products.