FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Nick Seay
Senior Vice President
Stem Cell Products, Inc.
(608) 310-5103
Email: nseay@stemcell-products.com

Stem Cell Products, Inc. Receives Grants from State of Wisconsin

Madison, Wis—October 10, 2006—Stem Cell Products, Inc. (SCP), a privately held Madison, Wis., biotechnology company, announced today that the Wisconsin Department of Commerce has awarded the company $1,000,000 in technology development grants and loans. Governor James Doyle also designated the company as a Qualified New Business Venture, meaning that investors in SCP are eligible for Wisconsin state income tax credits. 

“Wisconsin is the birthplace of stem cell research, and I am committed to supporting its growth and development,” Gov. Doyle said.   “I am pleased that we could provide funding to Stem Cell Products, Inc. as it researches and moves to commercialize promising new technology.”

SCP plans to build on recent discoveries in University of Wisconsin laboratories, where scientists have demonstrated the ability of human embryonic stem cells to produce important components of the human blood system in culture.  The company efforts will focus on the use of embryonic stem cells to make circulating elements of the blood system, beginning with human red blood cells and platelets, which contain no DNA, have limited life spans in the human body and do not replicate.  SCP founders have already demonstrated that human embryonic stem cells can be cultured to produce both functional human platelets and precursors of human red blood cells.  Currently platelets and red blood cells are obtained from the blood of living human donors, and the donated blood products must be tested carefully for blood-born pathogens.  The production of these products from human embryonic stem cells offers the prospect that these important products can be produced in controlled and disease free conditions. 

“We are pleased and honored to be the recipient of this grant and loan, and we thank the State of Wisconsin and Governor Doyle for the confidence placed in stem cell technology and SCP,” said Nick Seay, Senior Vice President for SCP. 

“The scientist founders of our company have demonstrated that important components of the blood system can be produced from human embryonic stem cells in culture,” he said.  “This is an important new use for embryonic stem cells.  Our company is now working hard to scale these processes up to be able to supply these blood products for clinical use to improve human health.”

SCP is a new stem cell company founded by UW researchers Prof. James Thomson, Prof. Igor Slukvin and Dr. Dong Chen, together with Tactics II Ventures LP, a Wisconsin venture fund.  Thomson and Slukvin are scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who conduct research on human stem cells and the blood system.  Dong Chen, a former UW researcher who investigated blood products, is currently a medical resident at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.