OREANDA-NEWS. Lifeline Scientific (AIM: LSIC), the transplantation technology company, announces that Tissue Testing Technologies LLC ("T3"), a strategic affiliate, 49% of which is owned by Lifeline, has been awarded three new grants totaling US\$1.56m by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop improved preservation and evaluation systems for various cells, tissues, and organs. The awards focus on specific aspects of Lifeline's proprietary cryopreservation technologies and methods aimed at improving tissue viability and ensuring process standardisation and consistency of supply.

The largest of the three grant awards is a US\$1.1m Phase II SBIR issued from the NIH, National Institute of General Medicine and addresses important advancements in the Company's ongoing grant funded vitrification research program for improving cryopreservation of engineered tissue equivalents. Vitrification is a potentially important enabling technology for cellular and regenerative medicine, offering the ability to store and transport cells, tissues and organs at ultra-low temperatures for extended time and a variety of biomedical applications. The proprietary vitrification technology is owned by Lifeline and used by T3 under an agreement between the companies.

The research protocol is specifically designed to advance the Company's proprietary ice-free vitrification technology (-70c preservation), of engineered human tissue equivalents used for in vitro toxicology testing. The research will focus on optimizing the Company's technology developed in an earlier NIH Phase I grant, and further characterize preserved Epiderm constructs with an aim to demonstrate that the overall integrity and function of the construct has not changed. Optimization will include making the preservation process more efficient, along with storage studies to determine optimal tissue storage times. In addition, the protocol will be applied to other relevant tissue equivalents, such as Epiderm-FT, EpiAirway and EpiOcular, currently being commercially used in toxicity studies. A growing demand for scientific research, diagnostic and clinical applications of naturally occurring and engineered cells, tissues and organs has created a large and growing market. Recent industry analysis projects the market for bio-preservation products and services to grow beyond US\$ 800 million within the next 5 years.

About Lifeline Scientific Inc.

Lifeline Scientific, Inc. is a Chicago-based global medical technology company with regional offices in Brussels and Sao Paulo. The Company's focus is the development of innovative products that improve transplant outcomes and lower the overall costs of transplantation. Its lead product, LifePort Kidney Transporter, is the global market-leading medical device for hypothermic machine preservation of donor kidneys. LifePorts and novel solutions designed for preservation of other organs are in development, with LifePort Liver Transporter next in line for commercial launch. 

About LifePort Kidney Transporter

Created with the challenges of organ recovery and transport in mind, LifePort Kidney Transporter is a proprietary medical device designed to help improve kidney preservation, evaluation and transport prior to transplantation. It has been widely studied in clinical trials throughout the world and is the standard of care for machine preservation of kidneys. Employed by surgeons in over 193 leading transplant programmes in 28 countries, LifePorts have preserved more than 50,000 kidneys indicated for clinical transplant.

About LifePort Liver Transporter

LifePort Liver Transporter is modelled upon the clinically proven technology platform of LifePort Kidney Transporter and the Company's early HMP prototype successfully used in clinical transplant studies by surgeons at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. LifePort Liver Transporter and the Company's proprietary machine preservation solution, Vasosol®, are in the process of US and European regulatory registrations. The system is designed to help improve outcomes in liver transplantation by enabling the clinical use of hypothermic machine perfusion, and has been developed in consultation with clinical and research teams specializing in liver transplantation at Columbia University Medical Center and the University of Chicago. The system employs a rugged, streamlined ergonomic design for ease of use and transportability from donor bedside to recipient operating room.