Howard Leonhardt of Leonhardt Ventures to Present at World Stem Cell Summit December 6th

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Howard Leonhardt of Leonhardt Ventures and the Cal-X Stars Innovation and Business Accelerator team will present at the 2013 World Stem Cell Summit on Friday, December 6, 2013 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego in two sessions. 

2pm Harbor Room AB - Developing Combination Products Cells, Genes, Devices 

3pm Harbor Room DE - Startup Considerations for Stem Cell Companies - Getting Funding and Avoiding Pitfalls

Cal-X Stars Business Accelerator, Inc. is an innovation accelerator with an unprecedented portfolio of breakthrough cardiovascular life science and high social good impact innovations that have primarily been majority funded to date by Leonhardt Ventures and its associated angel investor network.  

The innovation laboratory and business accelerator has two clear focus areas:

1. Cardiovascular innovations with a focus on heart failure and stem cell therapies.
2. Social good impact innovations designed to be cash flow positive short term.

Management team and board have a proven track record in leading breakthrough innovations in these focused spaces - http://www.calstockexchange.com/team-cal-x/.

Cardiovascular portfolio technologies include...

MyoStim Pacers – http:/www.myostimpacers.com - heart failure pacemaker designed to recruit reparative stem cells to damaged and weakened heart tissue.

Bioheart, Inc. – http://www.bioheartinc.com - Phase III leader in applying adult muscle stem cells to treat advanced heart failure since 1999. Only cell type known to grow new contractile muscle in the depths of heart scar tissue.  In the Phase II/III MARVEL randomized, double blinded, placebo controlled study Bioheart's MyoCell achieved 95.7 meters improvement in exercise capacity over placebo (minus 4 meters).

BioPace – biological pacemaker made entirely of living cells.

AortaCell unit of Stemergy - wireless non-invasive energy device designed to recruit stem cells to weakened vessel wall tissue for repair. Stemergy is developing a full line up of wireless energy devices designed to direct stem cell therapies non-invasively. 

BioLeonhardt – http://www.bioleonhardt.com - combination electrical stimulation and multi-stage cell and gene therapy method, composition and devices for treating advanced heart failure. Featuring combined utilization of MicroRNAs, nutrient time release SDF-1, hydrogel, cardiac stem cells, iPS cells and muscle progenitor stem cells. First method to utilize an implantable stem cell pump for multiple dosages of delivery of stem cells and growth factors over time.

Cardiobridge – http://www.cardiobridge.com - high flow rate 10FR circulatory support catheter pump in clinical testing for acute decompensating heart failure and high-risk PCI.  Relieving the heart of work load is being studied to possibly improve stem cell transplantation results (see also below). 

Stem Cell Pump - implantable stem cell pump designed for controlled dose delivery of stem cells and selected growth factors over time to specific target organ locations - incorporated into BioLeonhardt study plan. 

Stem Cell Bra - www.stemcellbra.com - the world's first women's bra designed to recruit her own stem cells with a homing signal and to build new breast tissue without surgery - patent pending.  Clinical safety and efficacy test results pending.

CORE Manufacturing LLC - http://prn.to/169qrpw - http://core-manufacturing.com -cGMP contract manufacturing service for bioactive implantable devices.

The Leonhardt Ventures' Cal-X Stars Business Accelerator, Inc. Scientific Advisory Board is made up of leading researchers - http://calxstars.com/scientific-advisory-board/. 

Jane Reedy the former VP of Clinical Affairs & Marketing at HeartWare and Thoratec and Suresh Gurunathan Director of Engineering at Nanostim have recently joined our advisory team.

Note - Bioheart will receive royalties and milestone payments from MyoStim Pacers, BioPace and BioLeonhardt. 

Earlier this year Howard Leonhardt presented his 25 Year Experience with Stem Cell Transplantation for Heart Failure Treatment - here is a link to the summary abstract - http://prn.to/10W8qbS. Leonhardt an inventor has over 21 patents related to cardiovascular and stem cell therapies.  In the 1980's and early 90's he patented a number of stem cell delivery catheters including the Pro-Cell delivery system U.S. Patent 5,693,029 http://www.google.com.br/patents/US5693029.   He worked with Dr. Stuart Williams in the early 90's to develop the first cell seeded and sodded stent grafts.  A team he led with Dr. Ken Thomson completed the first percutaneous stent graft implantation for aortic aneurysm repair in Melbourne, Australia in 1995.  In 1996 with Dr. Christoph Neinaber they completed the first percutaneous repair of an aortic Type B dissection and later published the first-in-man study in The New England Journal of Medicine. In 1997 Leonhardt patented and developed the first Percutaneous Heart Valve U.S. patent 5,957,949 which included cell seeding of the heart valve leaflets - http://www.google.com.mx/patents/US5957949. In 1999 Leonhardt recruited Dr. Race Kao (first to publish in The Physiologist in 1989) and Dr. Doris Taylor (landmark study in Nature Medicine 1998) and founded Bioheart, Inc. the first muscle stem cell company to treat heart failure.  In 2001 Leonhardt helped lead the team with Prof. Patrick Serruys, Dr. Doris Taylor and Dr. Warren Sherman that completed the first-in-man non-surgical percutaneous implantation of stem cells to treat a damaged heart in The Netherlands.  Bioheart MyoCell is now in the Phase III MIRROR pivotal trial.  Leonhardt's team has developed a number of other breakthrough developments including the first Stem Cell Bra, the first implantable Stem Cell Pump and the first wireless energy devices to direct stem cell therapies non-invasively (AortaCell).  

Howard Leonhardt is devoting a substantial part of his time today preparing for new first-in-man implantations of breakthrough stem cell innovations.  These include the first stem cell recruiting CRT/ICD heart failure pacemaker following his own patents licensed by the firm Leonhardt Ventures has funded MyoStim Pacers www.myostimpacers.com based in San Diego. This first-in-man implantation pilot study team will be led by Dr. William Abraham of OSU and Dr. Barry Greenberg of UCSD.  BioPace is the first biological pacemaker made entirely of living cells - led by Leonhardt Venture's team member Wendell King, the original inventor of the first biological pacemaker in 1989 patent 5,103,821 http://www.google.sc/patents/US5103821, and also following Taheri-Leonhardt U.S. Patent 6,690,970 issued in 2004 http://www.google.ca/patents/US6690970 (valid til 2023 with ext.).  BioPace is on schedule with a goal to complete the first-in-man implantation in Utrecht, The Netherlands by a team led by Dr. Eric Duckers and Dr. Peter Doevendans by late 2014 or 2015.  

BioLeonhardt is initiating work with Dr. Deepak Srivastava at the Gladstone Institute in San Francisco in collaboration with Dr. Eric Ducker's team in Utrecht to move forward the first combination therapy for heart failure utilizing MicroRNAs, genes, cells, electrical stimulation and an implantable stem cell pump.  The Leonhardt Ventures team is working with Dr. Mark Cunningham at USC Keck Medical Center to advance forward the use of circulatory assist pumps to improve stem cell transplantation results in advanced heart failure patients.  The Leonhardt Venture's Stem Cell Bra team is working with Dr. Joel Aronowitz of Cedars Sinai Los Angeles and Dr. Stuart Williams at the University of Louisville to carefully study the safety and efficacy of the world's first stem cell recruiting women's bra and other stem cell transplantation techniques (BioCell Tharapies, Minneapolis) for breast reconstruction following cancer. 

About The 2013 World Stem Cell Summit - December 4-6, Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego, California.
The 2013 World Stem Cell Summit (WSCS 13) is an engine for discovery, funding and commercialization. Planned by and for the stem cell and regenerative medicine community, the Summit brings global stakeholders together to solve global challenges. The goal of the summit is to accelerate the discovery and development of lifesaving cures and therapies. The summit builds a foundation to advance cell therapies by establishing a supportive environment of regulation, legislation, financing, reimbursement and patient advocacy.

About Leonhardt Ventures:  Since 1982 Leonhardt Ventures has a strong history of inventing, developing, backing and bringing to market leadership products for treating heart and cardiovascular disease. Over 200,000 patients have been treated to date with Leonhardt inventions. Leonhardt Venture's started the Cal-X Stars Innovation and Business Accelerator in 2012 to guide forward cardiovascular and social good impact innovations over a 5 year period in preparation for a listing on the future California Stock Exchange (SEC registration application in process). June 11th, 2013 Leonhardt Ventures announced that it has chosen CORE Manufacturing LLC in Valencia, California for manufacturing and product development services for its lineup of active implantable devices - http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130611-906181.html

Contact:  Howard Leonhardt, Leonhardt Ventures' Cal-X Stars Business Accelerator, Inc., 1531 6^th Street, Unit 401, Santa Monica, California, 90401, Office direct 310 310 2534, Email

This press release distribution was issued via Local PR Media, a division of PR Syndication.
Read more news from Leonhardt Ventures.

SOURCE Leonhardt Ventures