Lisata Therapeutics’ Director and Scientific Founder of the CendR Platform™ Technology, Erkki Ruoslahti, M.D., Ph.D., Receives 2022 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award
September 29 2022 - 8:00AM
Lisata Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: LSTA) (“Lisata” or the
“Company”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing
innovative therapies for the treatment of advanced solid tumors and
other serious diseases, today announced that Erkki Ruoslahti, M.D.,
Ph.D., the scientific founder of the Company’s CendR Platform™
technology and a member of the Company’s board of directors, was a
recipient of the 2022 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award,
which was awarded on September 28, 2022. The Albert Lasker Basic
Medical Research Award is one of the highly competitive and
distinguished international prizes for medical science awarded by
the Lasker Foundation.
Dr. Ruoslahti, together with Drs. Richard Hynes and Timothy
Springer, is being honored for the discovery of integrins and their
key role as mediators of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions in
physiology and disease. The Lasker Foundation awards are considered
among the most respected science prizes in the world, honoring
visionaries whose insight and perseverance have led to dramatic
advances that will prevent disease and prolong life. Dr.
Ruoslahti’s fundamental work in identifying and characterizing
integrins has been successfully translated into a technology
platform for the selective and efficient delivery of therapeutic
moieties into solid tumors. Known as the CendR Platform™, it is the
basis for LSTA1, Lisata’s lead clinical development program being
studied in a variety of clinical trials in combination with
chemotherapeutic and immunotherapeutic agents to enhance the
survival of patients with difficult-to-treat solid tumor
cancers.
Dr. Ruoslahti’s most notable scientific contributions are in the
field of cell adhesion, where he is credited as one of the
discoverers of fibronectin. His discovery and characterization of
the RGD peptide has led to the development of drugs for diseases
ranging from vascular thrombosis to cancer. His current studies
deal with peptides that home to specific targets in the body, such
as tumors, atherosclerotic plaques, and injured tissues. These
peptides, which usually bind to receptors in the vessels of the
target tissue, can be used to selectively deliver diagnostic probes
and drugs to the target. His latest development in this area is the
discovery of homing peptides with tumor-penetrating properties
based on activation of the CendR active transport pathway.
Activation of the CendR pathway allows for the transport of
moieties through a variety of cells and the phenomenon is at the
heart of the mechanism of action of LSTA1 and the CendR Platform™
in general.
“I am very honored and grateful to the Lasker Foundation for
this award and would like to recognize all the contributors who
have inspired my work as well as those who have assisted me along
the way,” stated Dr. Ruoslahti. “I hope my research continues to
contribute to the improvement of patient health and quality of
life.”
“Dr. Ruoslahti is a true visionary, and we are fortunate to be
able to apply his research and discoveries in the development of
our CendR Platform™ technology-based programs for the treatment of
cancer and other major diseases,” stated David J. Mazzo, Ph.D.,
Chief Executive Officer of Lisata. “All of us at Lisata extend our
most heartfelt congratulations to him on this momentous
occasion.”
Dr. Ruoslahti was appointed to the Lisata Board in September
2022 as part of the merger of Lisata with Cend Therapeutics, Inc.,
where Dr. Ruoslahti served as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
He earned his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Helsinki in
Finland in 1967. After postdoctoral training at the California
Institute of Technology, he held various academic appointments with
the University of Helsinki and the University of Turku in Finland
and City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California. He
joined the Sanford-Burnham Institute for Medical Research in 1979
and served as its President from 1989-2002. Dr. Ruoslahti cofounded
the Center for Nanomedicine and was a distinguished professor at
University of California Santa Barbara in Biological Sciences from
2005-2015. In addition to the 2022 Albert Lasker Basic Medical
Research Award, Dr. Ruoslahti’s honors include elected membership
to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of
Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the
European Molecular Biology Organization; and receipt of the Japan
Prize, the Gairdner Foundation International Award, the G.H.A.
Clowes Award, the Robert J. and Claire Pasarow Foundation Award,
and the Jacobaeus International Prize. On the entrepreneurial side,
Dr. Ruoslahti is an inventor of about 150 patents and a fellow of
the National Academy of Inventors. He has founded several biotech
companies and served on the board of directors of two publicly
traded companies in addition to Lisata.
About Lisata Therapeutics
Lisata Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical
company dedicated to the discovery, development, and
commercialization of innovative therapies for the treatment of
advanced solid tumors and other major diseases. Lisata’s lead
investigational product candidate, LSTA1 (formerly known as
CEND-1), is designed to modify the tumor microenvironment by
activating a novel uptake pathway that allows anti-cancer drugs to
penetrate solid tumors more effectively. LSTA1 actuates an active
transport system in a tumor-specific manner, resulting in
systemically co-administered anti-cancer drugs more efficiently
penetrating and accumulating in the tumor, while normal tissues are
not affected. LSTA1 has demonstrated favorable safety,
tolerability, and activity in clinical trials to enhance delivery
of standard-of-care chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer. Lisata and
its collaborators have also amassed significant non-clinical data
demonstrating enhanced delivery of a range of emerging anti-cancer
therapies, including immunotherapies and RNA-based therapeutics.
Lisata is exploring the potential of LSTA1 to enable a variety of
treatment modalities to treat a range of solid tumors more
effectively. In addition, Lisata also has clinical development
programs based on its autologous CD34+ cell therapy technology
platform.
Contact:
Investors and Media:Lisata Therapeutics, Inc.John MendittoVice
President, Investor Relations and Corporate
CommunicationsPhone: 908-842-0084Email: jmenditto@lisata.com
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