BioWorld International Correspondent

ZICHRON YAAKOV, Israel - Tissera Inc. has gone through a spectacular metamorphosis since it was founded late in 2003. The stem cell research start-up made its debut on Wall Street with a market cap of $250 million, then plunged to $6 million. It now is looking for more nurture and support.

There are questions, though. Can breakthrough technology, consistent scientific milestones and a new but seasoned management outpace legal disputes with former managers? Can the young stem cell company fulfill a promise to usher in "a new era" in tissue transplantation? Or will investors, who have lost confidence and a pile of money, run Tissera into the ground?

Amos Eiran, new chairman and acting CEO of Tissera, said the company deserves a fresh start, and that its inherent biotech value far outweighs the haste and impatience of past managers lured by a fast buck and who were perhaps na ve about being a publicly traded company.

"The Tissera of today is not the Tissera of the past," Eiran said. He has no medical or scientific background, but it's not the science that needs attention - that's being taken care of by Yair Reisner and his team at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. It is their porcine stem cell research upon which the company is based.

It's the investment community that needs attention, and Eiran, with a rich background in life science management, business development and political expertise, is suited to tend to them. He has an MBA from Harvard University and served as a director for Medis Technologies Ltd. and for two of its subsidiaries since 1997. Also, he was chairman of the Industrial Cooperation Authority from 1995 through the summer of 2002. Before that, he was director general and chairman of Mivtahim, Israel's largest pension fund, and he returned to get a diploma in investments from the Wharton School in 2002.

Tissera achieved Nasdaq listing by a reverse merger with Bert Logic, a Wall Street shell, in 2003. At that time, Tissera was managed by Vicki Rabenou, a medical doctor who had been president and CEO of the Rad BioMed Incubator. Nearly a year ago, she announced that Tissera had pinpointed the optimal time for harvesting embryonic tissue, which she called an "important stepping stone in developing a reliable source of viable organs for transplantation." That, she said, would free "millions of sufferers forced to wait years for a suitable organ donor."

But she herself did not wait years. She sold her shares and options close to the $9 share spike, along with the other shareholders. Today, Tissera is trading at around 20 cents per share, reflecting that market cap of $6 million.

Upon taking up the post of acting CEO, Eiran also received warrants to purchase 1.5 million shares of common stock at an exercise price of 30 cents. The warrants can be vested in 24 consecutive monthly installments, and he says that he is staying in to see the company make a well-deserved turnaround, adding that current funds will last until mid-2006, and if the trials in monkeys meet forecasts.

"We will raise an additional $2 million late in 2005 to carry out Phase I clinical trials on a limited number of patients," he said.