Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. (AMEX:AST)

Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc., incorporated on October 24, 2012, is a biotechnology company. The Company is engaged in developing and commercializing therapies in the fields of cell therapy and regenerative medicine. The Company has over two technology platforms. The first is an immunotherapy platform to teach cancer patients' immune systems to attack their tumors. The second is pluripotent stem cell platform. Pluripotent cells are a type of stem cell capable of becoming all of the cell types in the human body. The Company is focused on developing therapies to treat conditions with medical needs and inadequate available therapies, with an initial focus on the therapeutic areas of oncology and neurology. From its immunotherapy platform, the Company is developing over two programs. AST-VAC1 (telomerase loaded, autologous dendritic cells), which allows patient's own cells to recognize and fight cancer cells in acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Together with its collaboration partner, Cancer Research United Kingdom (CRUK), it is developing AST-VAC2 (telomerase loaded, -allogeneic dendritic cells), -derived from pluripotent stem cells which could provide off the shelf cells that teaches a patient's immune system to recognize and fight cancer cells, in non-small cell lung cancer. From its pluripotent stem cell platform, it is developing AST-OPC1, oligodendrocyte progenitor cells, in an initial clinical indication of spinal cord injury, with potential for later expansion into other neurodegenerative diseases, such as stroke and multiple sclerosis. ...