Dana Larocca's Biography

Dana Larocca, VP Discovery Research, AgeX Therapeutics

Dana Larocca is Vice President of Discovery Research at AgeX Therapeutics. Her current research is focused on development of iTR (induced Tissue Regeneration) by re-activating embryonic pathways using genetic approaches and EV transfer. She has over 20 years of leadership experience in the Biotechnology Industry working in regenerative medicine, stem cell research and gene therapy. She founded Mandala Biosciences, LLC and as Chief Executive Officer, raised over $3M in non-dilutive funding from SBIR and CIRM grants aimed at stem cell identification and purification using targeted nanoparticles. Dr. Larocca previously held joint positions at Advanced Cell Technology (now Astellas) and the Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute. She is author of 43 scientific publications and inventor of 25 patents and patent applications in the fields of regenerative medicine, gene therapy, and immunotherapy. Dr. Larocca holds a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Southern California and a B.S. in Biology from Ithaca College. She did her post-doctoral training at Harvard University.

Extracellular Vesicles as Reprogramming Reagents for induced Tissue Regeneration (iTR)

Monday, 17 February 2020 at 16:30

Add to Calendar ▼2020-02-17 16:30:002020-02-17 17:30:00Europe/LondonExtracellular Vesicles as Reprogramming Reagents for induced Tissue Regeneration (iTR)EV-based Diagnostics, Delivery and Therapeutics in Coronado Island, CaliforniaCoronado Island, CaliforniaSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

The global demographic shift toward an older population has created an urgent unmet medical need for effective therapeutics to treat chronic diseases of aging. Our somatic restriction model views aging as a progressive loss of robust replicative and regenerative potential, initially observed in the developing embryo, that leads to the eventual loss of tissue homeostasis associated with aging. We are currently assessing the ability of natural and engineered EVs to restore aging adult cells to a younger more regenerative state. Accordingly, we hypothesized that EVs from young highly regenerative embryonic progenitor cell lines could potentially act as reprogramming reagents to induce regeneration in aging adult cells and tissues. Toward this end, we have been mining our PureStem library of over 200 highly scalable and clonally pure embryonic progenitor cell lines to identify cellular sources of EVs capable of induced Tissue Regeneration (iTR). Using angiogenesis as a model system of vascular regeneration, we identified embryonic progenitor cell lines that produce EVs capable of stimulating adult endothelial cell migration and tube formation with increased potency compared to EVs from adult cell lines. We are using comparative transcriptomic analysis of our PureStem library to identify additional candidate cell lines that produce angiogenic EVs. In addition, we identified miRNA cargo associated with increased angiogenic activity that we are currently loading into native exosomes to determine whether they can enhance therapeutic potency. Our data indicate the potential of embryonic progenitor cell lines as a source of natural and engineered EVs for treating cardiovascular disease as well as other degenerative diseases of aging.

Add to Calendar ▼2020-02-17 00:00:002020-02-18 00:00:00Europe/LondonEV-based Diagnostics, Delivery and TherapeuticsEV-based Diagnostics, Delivery and Therapeutics in Coronado Island, CaliforniaCoronado Island, CaliforniaSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

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