Stem Cell Startup Receives Funding

SynGen Inc., a medical device startup in Sacramento, Calif., that develops stem cell harvesting systems, has completed a $5 million stock financing round with Bay City Capital LLC (BCC).

San Francisco, Calif.-based BCC will appoint two representatives to SynGen’s board under the terms of the transaction.

“During the due diligence process, BCC had already begun facilitating business relationships important for our accelerated growth and market expansion,” said Phil Coelho, SynGen’s president and CEO.

The money is intended to fund the platform system SynGen-1000 and market it to cord blood banks, which is a bank that stores umbilical cord blood for future use. Cord blood contains stem cells that can be used to treat hematopoietic and genetic disorders.

Coelho said, “These banks value the substantially improved cell recovery and high purity of stem and progenitor cells that the product provides, in addition to its ease-of-use, reduced costs and improved data recording standards for automated cGMP (current good manufacturing process) cell processing. We expect to file for 510(k) clearance with the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) and to achieve CE marking for the SynGen-1000 in the near future. Subsequently, our advanced designs target emerging markets including stem cell research centers, hospitals practicing cell therapy in surgical suites and stem cell clinical trials.”

The SynGen-1000 is a battery operated, single-use device that is designed to harvest white blood cells from normal or cord blood, bone marrow aspirate, stromal vascular fraction cells from adipose tissue, and reamer/irrigator/aspirator bone marrow cell solution.