Stryker Corporation

Creative Biomolecules, Inc.

Curis, Inc.

Stryker Biotech

Thangavel Kuberasampath

David C Rueger

Hermann Oppermann

Engin Ozkaynak

Charles M Cohen

Roy H Pang

Roy H L Pang

John E Smart

Marc F Charette

Lawrence Berlowitz Tarrant

Richard J Ridge

Ronald F Tucker

William K Jones

Herrmann Oppermann

Donald F Jin

Disclosed are therapeutic treatment methods, compositions and devices for maintaining neural pathways in a mammal, including enhancing survival of neurons at risk of dying, inducing cellular repair of damaged neurons and neural pathways, and stimulating neurons to maintain their differentiated phenotype. In one embodiment, the invention provides means for stimulating CAM expression in neurons. The invention also provides means for evaluating the status of nerve tissue, including means for detecting and monitoring neuropathies in a mammal. The methods, devices and compositions include a morphogen or morphogen-stimulating agent provided to the mammal in a therapeutically effective concentration.

Morphogen-induced nerve regeneration and repair

Disclosed are 1) osteogenic devices comprising a matrix containing osteogenic protein and methods of inducing endochondral bone growth in mammals using the devices; 2) amino acid sequence data, amino acid composition, solubility properties, structural features, homologies and various other data characterizing osteogenic proteins, 3) methods of producing osteogenic proteins using recombinant DNA technology, and 4) osteogenically and chondrogenically active synthetic protein constructs.

Nucleic acid molecules encoding osteogenic proteins

Disclosed are (1) osteogenic devices comprising a matrix containing substantially pure natural-sourced mammalian osteogenic protein; (2) DNA and amino acid sequences for novel polypeptide chains useful as subunits of dimeric osteogenic proteins; (3) vectors carrying sequences encoding these novel polypeptide chains and host cells transfected with these vectors; (4) methods of producing these polypeptide chains using recombinant DNA technology; (5) antibodies specific for these novel polypeptide chains; (6) osteogenic devices comprising these recombinantly produced proteins in association with an appropriate carrier matrix; and (7) methods of using the osteogenic devices to mimic the natural course of endochondral bone formation in mammals.

Osteogenic proteins

Disclosed are methods and compositions for maintaining the integrity of the gastrointestinal tract luminal lining in a mammal, including (1) limiting epithelial cell proliferation, (2) inhibiting ulcerative lesion formation, (3) inhibiting inflammation normally associated with ulcerative diseases, and (4) stimulating the repair of ulcerative lesions and the regeneration of the luminal tissue. The methods and compositions include a therapeutically effective amount of a morphogen as defined herein.

Morphogen treatments for limiting proliferation of epithelial cells

The invention is a treatment for increasing the bone mass or preventing bone loss in an individual afflicted with a bone disease which includes administering to the individual a morphogen in a therapeutically effective amount so as to maintain or stimulate bone formation.

Treatment to prevent loss of and/or increase bone mass in metabolic bone diseases

Osteogenic devices

Morphogen-induced neural cell adhesion

Disclosed is an osteogenic device capable of inducing the formation of endochondral bone in a shape conforming substantially to the shape of the device when implanted in a mammalian host. The device includes an osteogenic protein dispersed within a porous matrix comprising a polymer of collagen and glycosaminoglycan cross-linked to an M value of about 800 to about 60,000. Also disclosed are a method of inducing mammalian bone growth, and a method of inducing conductive bone growth from viable mammalian bone.

Synthetic bone matrix

Method of using recombinant osteogenic protein to repair bone or cartilage defects

The invention provides methods, compositions and devices for inducing tissue-specific regeneration in a mammal, or for stimulating proliferation of mammalian progenitor cells. The present methods, compositions and devices make use of osteogenic protein (OP- ), which is appreciated herein as a tissue morphogen, i.e., a substance competent to induce tissue-specific morphogenesis of mammalian body tissues in addition to bone and/or cartilage. Alternatively, the present methods, compositions and devices make use of other naturally-occurring or biosynthetic proteins sharing a defined structural and functional relationship with OP- and thus appreciated herein also to function as tissue morphogens. Optionally, OP- or a related protein can be used alone or when adsorbed on a support matrix which provides an anchoring substratum for proliferation and/or differentiation of progenitor cells during tissue-specific morphogenesis. In another embodiment, OP- or a related protein is used to stimulate mammalian progenitor cells ex vivo, such that the stimulated cells, when disposed in vivo in a mammal, undergo tissue-specific morphogenesis to produce replacement tissue at a nonskeletal tissue locus in need thereof (i.e., at a nonbony or noncartilaginous tissue locus in need thereof).

Protein-induced tissue morphogenesis

Disclosed are 1) amino acid sequence data, structural features, homologies and various other data characterizing morphogenic proteins, 2) methods of producing these proteins from natural and recombinant sources and from synthetic constructs, 3) morphogenic devices comprising these morphogenic proteins and a suitably modified tissue-specific matrix, and 4) methods of inducing non-chondrogenic tissue growth in a mammal.

Growing community of inventors

Medway, MA, United States of America

Thangavel Kuberasampath