Coming off that inspiring event, here is this week's stem cell industry news. Check it out and let me know what you think?

Regeneus Finalizes Terms with AGC, $5.5M Plus Future Payments of $11M
Regeneus Ltd (ASX: RGS), a clinical stage regenerative medicine company, announced it has received US$5.5M from AGC Asahi Glass ("AGC") as an upfront payment for the exclusive rights to manufacture Progenza under the terms of the collaboration and licence announced on 29 December 2016. Regeneus is expected to receive a further US$11m in specific development and approval milestone payments. AGC will be responsible for funding the manufacture of Progenza for the proposed Phase 2 trial for osteoarthritis in Japan under specific conditions.

Cytonome/ST, LLC announces it has signed the first application specific agreement to license its proprietary GigaSort™ Technology for commercial scale cell therapy production. A premier pharmaceutical company has signed on for rights to use the technology for their disease indication. They will manufacture a critical cell therapy to address one of the major diseases afflicting aging populations globally. The GigaSort Platform is an application specific laser-based cell sorter that allows the identification, characterization, and isolation of highly purified cell populations.

Cynata Therapeutics Secures $6M in Capital Raise, $10M with Payment from FUJIFILM
Cynata Therapeutics Limited (ASX: CYP), has completed a placement of 9.23M fully-paid ordinary shares at a price of $0.65, for gross proceeds of A$6.0M before costs. The Company intends to use the proceeds of the Placement and FUJIFILM investment to accelerate and expand the development of the Company’s proprietary Cymerus™ therapeutic mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) technology, specifically to build on the existing data supporting the potential utility of Cymerus MSCs in developing cellular therapies to treat respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease and a number of other serious conditions.

NIMGenetics, Turnkey Solutions for Genomic Stability and Identity Requirements
The necessity of detecting/controlling genomic instability of cultured cells inspires current developments worldwide. In addition, cell line cross-contamination has become endemic. It is estimated that around 15% of human cell lines are contaminated and, as a result, more and more prestigious journals are asking authors to report the source of their cell lines and whether the cell line has been authenticated. Recently, NIMGenetics has expanded into the stem cell therapy field, to allow for genetic screening of stem cell based products.

Cell Care Australia Acquires Insception Lifebank in Canada
In October of 2016, the largest cord blood bank in Australia, Cell Care, announced that it was acquiring the largest cord blood bank in Canada, Insception Lifebank. The merger of Cell Care and Insception Lifebank is a powerful move, because it will create one of the ten largest cord blood banks worldwide, with more than 100K cord blood and tissue units in storage. It will also promote clinical trial and R&D activity between the two companies.

Benefits of Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC) Over Other Stem Cells
MSCs are advantageous over other stem cells types for a variety of reasons. First, they avoid the ethical issues that surround embryonic stem cell research. Second, repeated studies have found MSCs to be immuno-privileged, which make them an advantageous cell type for allogeneic transplantation. Third, MSCs can exert regenerative effects through honing to sites of damage, paracrine signalling, regulating the immune response, and affecting the microenvironment. These traits make MSCs of intense therapeutic interest.

The Global Cord Blood Industry is Consolidating and Maturing
Over the past five years, the cord blood industry has undergone substantial consolidation and maturation. One major event was the acquisition of the United States’ largest cord blood, Cord Blood Registry (CBR), by AMAG Pharmaceuticals for $700M in March 2015. Previously, ViaCord was acquired by PerkinElmer in October 2007 for $300M. AlphaCord also acquired LifeSource Cryobank in November 2015, Human Longevity acquired LifebankUSA from Celgene in January 2016, and FamilyCord acquired Southern Cord in April 2016. Most recently, Australia’s largest cord blood bank, Cell Care, acquired Canada’s largest cord blood bank, Insception Lifebank, in October 2016.