Orgenesis awarded EUR 1.5M grant from Walloon Government

Orgenesis announced that the Company has been awarded a EUR 1.5 million grant from the Walloon government in Belgium for its EXOFASTTRACK project focused on manufacturing, loading, analytical methods and quality control of therapeutic exosomes. Consortium members include: Orgenesis, Cilyx, CMMI, convExYO, EXO Biologics, ExoXpert, Genflow Biosciences, LiveDrop, ULB, UMONS and Xomexbio. This grant is the second such project awarded to an Orgenesis consortium by the Walloon Government partnership, ATMP-Partenariat d’Innovation Technologique, in collaboration with BioWin, the health cluster of Wallonia, and the Public service of Wallonia. EXOFASTTRACK is a collaborative project focused on accelerating the development of multiple therapeutic exosomes for rapid clinical evaluation. Mainly isolated from stem cells, which are known for their regenerative and anti-inflammatory properties, exosomes are considered to have opened new horizons in cell therapy and Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products. The main function of exosomes is to act as intercellular messengers over long distances. Therapeutic exosomes are based on very large-scale reproduction, several billion copies, of an intercellular message specific to the producing cells, e.g. stem cells, in the lab. In addition, it is possible to modify the “therapeutic message” by loading a therapeutic agent specific to the targeted disease or “loading,” substantially enhancing their field of application. The development of new automated technologies for both the production and loading of exosomes uses a ‘low-footprint’ approach, with the aim of significantly reducing the surface area required to implement these processes as well as lowering the costs of manufacturing and energy consumption, which reduces the environmental footprint in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.