Along this line, his group was the first to develop hESC lines without the use of animal-derived reagents and under GMP conditions. The laboratory is providing these cell lines to multiple academic research groups and companies that are developing cell therapy products globally. These lines are already in clinical trials with two projects-- for age-related macular degeneration (AMD, at Cell Cure Neurosciences Ltd), and for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, at Kadimastem Ltd).
Prof. Reubinoff major clinical indication for developing hESC-based cell therapy has been age-dependent progressive loss of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells, in Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) patients, which leads to degeneration of photoreceptors, and progressive vision loss. His group developed highly efficient methods for directing hESCs towards RPE cells under defined conditions and produced RPE cell batches for clinical use. The cells and technology were transferred to a biotech company, CellCure Neurosciences Ltd..
Prof. Reubinoff is the founder and chief scientific officer (CSO) of Cell Cure Neurosciences. The company was founded as a subsidiary of the Singapore-based ES Cell International (ESI). In 2010, BioTime (now Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc.) acquired a majority interest in Cell Cure Neurosciences upon the acquisition of ESI. Today Cell Cure Neurosciences is a subsidiary of Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel cellular therapies to treat unmet medical needs. of the company
Prof. Reubinoff another major effort is to develop Multiple Sclerosis (MS) hESC-based cell therapy. In this project, the laboratory developed the technology to produce myelin-forming cells from hESCs.
Prof. Reubinoff group is also using pluripotent stem cells for modeling diseases towards understanding their cause and developing novel drugs. A key project in this area has been the development of a model for cerebral palsy (CP). We discovered a small molecule that can overcome the neural pathology associated with CP.
Prof. Reubinoff is also interested in the derivation of germ cells from pluripotent stem cells. Understanding the development of germ cells from hESCs may contribute to the understanding of infertility due to the lack of gametogenesis. In addition, pluripotent stem cells may potentially serve in the future as a source of germ cells for infertility treatments.
Prof. Reubinoff is an author on 113 papers published in the most prestigious Journals such as Cell Stem Cells, Stem Cells, and Cancer Research.
Prof. Reubinoff group have recently been awarded the following grants; The Ministry of Science - Towards regenerative therapy for multiple sclerosis with human embryonic stem cells, ISF – Semaphorin 3A + 3B in the etiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, The Ministry of Science – Modeling Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in human pluripotent stem cells, Ministry of Industry (Bereshit) – The derivation of clinical grade human embryonic stem cells, Ministry of Industry (Magnet) – Bioreactor system for the large-scale production of pluripotent stem cells and their derivatives, FFB (Foundation Fighting Blindness) – Immunological Properties and Interactions of Retinal Pigment Epithelium Derived from Human Embryonic Stem Cells, The ERANET - European Research Projects on Neurodegenerative Diseases of the CNS – Modeling sporadic ALS with human pluripotent stem cells.