Worcester, MA, May 19, 2005 – A.C.T. Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB:ACTH.OB) and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (collectively, “ACT”) announced today that ACT has entered into two separate agreements to expand its portfolio of intellectual property in regard to somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) and cellular reprogramming.
In the first agreement, ACT acquired an option to exclusively license cloning patents from TranXenoGen, Inc. of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. The patents include US patents 5,480,772; 5,651,992; 5,773,217; 6,245,567; 6,753,457; and 6,878,546. This patent family includes granted claims related to somatic cell nuclear transfer and the use of oocytes and oocyte extracts to reprogram somatic cells. Separately, ACT announced today that it has acquired the patents to a second generation cloning technology known as “cell fusion” and additional patents related to their gene trap technology. The patents include published US patent applications numbers 20030224345, 20040199935, and 20040219563 which describe the fusion of the cytoplasm of egg cells, or embryonic stem cells with somatic cells to reprogram the somatic cells back to a pluripotent stem cell state and the use of gene trap technology to identify and induce differentiation of stem cells. These newly licensed patents are in addition to the 31 patents an over 280 patent applications pending worldwide that ACT owns or has licensed in the field of regenerative medicine, cloning, cell fusion, and related stem cell technologies.
“These patents and patent applications represent some of the earliest filings on advanced cellular reprogramming technologies that do not utilize egg cells in the traditional sense of somatic cell nuclear transfer,” remarked William Caldwell, Chief Executive Officer of ACT. “This new technology we call ‘cell fusion’ has the potential to dramatically reduce the costs associated with cloning human cells for clinical use. Together with our other technologies in somatic cell nuclear transfer and cellular reprogramming, we believe we are well poised to lead in the development of important new products within the field of regenerative medicine.”
“There are few phenomenon in cell biology as remarkable as the ability of the egg cell to reprogram a cell from the human body back to its original embryonic state,” said Dr. Michael West, ACT’s President and Chief Scientific Officer. “Cell fusion along with nuclear transfer may open the door to the cost-effective reprogramming of human somatic cells, and as a result, may allow the generation of cells of any kind, not expected to be rejected by the patient as foreign tissue.”
A.C.T. Holdings, Inc., a Nevada corporation, and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., a Delaware corporation, is a biotechnology company applying stem cell technology in the emerging field of regenerative medicine. The company is currently headquartered in Worcester, Massachusetts.
For more information about Advanced Cell Technology visit www.advancedcell.com
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A.C.T. Holdings, Inc.