ArunA Biomedical, Inc, a leader in human embryonic stem cell derived products, announced that it has entered into an exclusive worldwide technology licensing agreement with the University of Georgia Research Foundation that will enable the company to commercialize human mesenchymal cells developed at the University of Georgia.

Under the terms of the agreement, ArunA has acquired an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize human mesenchymal cells (hMSC) derived from human embryonic stem cells, a product never before available. ArunA will offer the academic and industrial research communities access to a highly uniform population of human mesenchymal cells grown as adherent monolayer cultures in multiple turn-key kit formats. The hMSC kits will provide a physiologically relevant and genetically stable source of research material for use in a broad range of life science research applications such as: developmental pathway studies, disease modelling, in vitro toxicology, compound screening and humanized animal models.

"ArunA's proprietary adherent monolayer culture technology creates millions of highly uniform cells. These unique cells provide researchers with new enabling tools that can have a measurable impact on the advancement of drug discovery," says ArunA Biomedical president and chief executive officer, William Sharp. "We are targeting an early first quarter 2009 launch of ArunA's first hMSC kit."

According to Robert Nerem, the Parker H Petit Distinguished Chair for Engineering in Medicine at the Georgia Institute of Technology, "One of the most important uses of human embryonic stem cells will be in the generation of uniform populations of adult stem cells and progenitor cells. It is thus exciting that ArunA Biomedical will be able to provide uniform cell populations of human mesenchymal cells in kit form. This not only will be of value to bench scientists, but also in advancement toward clinical therapies."

Located in Athens, Georgia, ArunA Biomedical, Inc is a privately held biotechnology corporation dedicated to the discovery, manufacturing and commercialization of emerging new technologies in human stem cell research for use in drug discovery and basic research.