Dear Friend,
Welcome back to our most recent newsletter. We have some important
updates for you, and an overview of the best parts of December.
A Year in
Review
- 2019 saw the addition of two new advisory board members to our
team, Elena Steiner Tartaglione, PhD and William Musa, MS.
- Elena graduated from Arizona State University with her PhD in
Communications. Elena has extensive international experience, having
worked in over 20 countries, and she continues to work with Foregen on
shaping our distinct message of genital integrity and tissue
engineering.
- William graduated from Thomas Jefferson University with his MS in
Biotechnology. He has experience in a variety of scientific
applications, including the use of animals in a laboratory setting as
well as experience working with human tissue.
- In March we met with Flanders Investment and Trade, an agency that
could help us set up research and business in Belgium to enable us to
continue with the next phases of our research.
- At the BIO-Europe conference, we met with other organizations,
agencies (U.K. and Wallonia), and individuals who can facilitate the
next phases of research, including tissue transportation in larger
quantities in the future.
- Foregen established discussions with several trade and investment
agencies across Europe, in addition to the relationship with Flanders
Investment & Trade. We concluded discussions with Berlin Partner
of Economics and Technology and acquired a lead on a potential future
tissue source which we’ll follow up on with the conclusion of holiday
closures.
- Foregen began the initial process for Phase III by organizing the
necessary steps to undertake a full histological study of the foreskin
-- something which has never be done to the extent now possible with
modern technology. We have also identified a potential adult tissue
supplier specifically for this phase, which would otherwise be
unsuitable for Foregen’s primary experiments.
- Our paper, which was published about a year ago on December 22nd,
had a breakout entry into 2019. It scored in the top 3% of over 14
million papers ever published and tracked by Altmetric. We would like
to thank all of our supporters for spreading awareness of Foregen and
our publication, as well as our donors for providing funding for this
project and future phases.
What’s
Happened Since Last Time
- The last of the tissue has been collected and shipped, and will be
undergoing the necessary processing for proper storage in preparation
for Phase II.
- We are in discussions with an international regulatory affairs
consultancy. This type of agency can create the necessary documents
defining our regulatory path in different markets around the world,
which is required to pursue human clinical trials, especially in the
context of a for-profit transition.
- Our legal representatives in Colombia are following up with the
country’s Ministry of Health to check on the status of our request.
Additional paperwork has been filed with the ministry in an attempt to
expedite the process, and we’ll keep our supporters posted on new
progress.
- The project for a histological study is moving along well as a
part of Phase III, and Foregen has assigned advisory board member
William Musa to coordinate the bulk of the project. At this time, we
have identified some potential outside partners and facilities in both
the United States and Europe which have shown preliminary interest in
the project.
- Our Chief Science Officer, Eric Cunningham, is working on a
related side project during the next few weeks. We’ll keep our
supporters posted on the progress of his work when a new update comes
along.
- Over the past month, Foregen also had 158 new supporters sign up
on our site with interest in our research.
- For the month of December, we reached a total of $9,395 in
donations, which helps us move forward with the next parts of our
mission! Be sure to inform other activists, friends and family about
Foregen and the science we’re pursuing to one day help provide genital
integrity to men around the world. Our overall total to date is
$537,831.5 Let’s
keep it up.
Tell Me
Something Interesting
-
According to
early research from Mayo Clinic ,stem cells derived from a
patient's own fat offer a step toward improving — not just stabilizing
— motor and sensory function of people with spinal
cord injuries. A clinical trial enrolled 10 adults to treat
paralysis from traumatic spinal cord injury. After stem cell
injection, the first patient demonstrated improvement in motor and
sensory functions, and had no significant adverse effects, according
to a case report published in Mayo
Clinic Proceedings.
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for our next newsletter. If
you’d like more frequent updates, please head over to our blog, or
visit one of our social media accounts – the links are the icons in
this newsletter.
Best,
The Foregen Team
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