Three months ago an old friend of mine, apparently fit and healthy after a career in the army, felt a sharp and unexpected pain in his side. Last week he died, just one more victim of cancer. For him, an extraordinary breakthrough in medical science, which was reported last week, comes too late.
Thanks to the work of Oncimmune, a company set up to commercialise research undertaken at Nottingham University, it may soon be possible to beat cancer with nothing more than a simple blood test.
If diagnosed early enough, cancer can be treated. The reason it is such a killer is that it is often not discovered until it is too late.
But researchers at Nottingham University have realised that the onset of cancer prompts a reaction from the immune system. By tracking and analysing this reaction, they have developed a reliable test based on just a small sample of blood.
Two breakthrough fields in the medical sector
Unfortunately, it is not possible to invest in Oncimmune, but the field of diagnostics is just one in which ground-breaking developments are happening.
A second is stem cell-based regenerative medicine. Last year a fascinating television programme showed how a rat’s heart had been grown in a laboratory by placing a stem cell on the frame (or ‘scaffold’) of the artificial heart. The cell then multiplied, covering the scaffold – rather like a sweet pea plant growing up a garden trellis – making a new, beating heart.
The reason that stem cell medicine is so promising is not only that that these cells can be used to grow new organs; what is also important is that, because these organs can be grown from the patient’s own cells, the risk that the body’s immune system will reject them is much reduced.
Stem cells can be taken from blood or bone marrow, but much better is to take them from the umbilical cord of newborn babies.
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Stem cells are easy to extract from this source and are easier to program. They can then be stored cryogenically for years, until one day they are required to seed the growth of, for instance, a new liver.
Today, parents who choose to have their offspring’s stem cells stored will have to pay thousands of pounds for the privilege. But the thought that these stem cells could one day save their children’s lives is persuading more and more of them to do so.
Two penny shares that could profit from a boom in stem cell storage
Last week, a panel of influential scientists forecasted a boom in the storage of stem cells. I think there are two penny shares that could profit from this.
The first is Cryo-Save (CRYO) – although beware, because it is about to shift its share quote from AIM to Euronext. The second is Vindon Healthcare (VDN), for which cryogenic storage of stem cells is as yet a minor part of its operations.
The business of stem cell storage seems attractive because a fee is paid up-front, then the stem cells simply sit in large freezing cylinders and probably will never be touched. It is a bit like having somebody pay you £1,000 to keep a small portion of cheese in your fridge for 20 years – with the difference being that stem cells don’t go mouldy and start to smell.
Last week the stock market offered another way to invest in the broad theme of regenerative medicine, through Oxeco (OXE). It agreed to acquire Tissue Regenix – a spin-out from Leeds University.
Tissue Regenix has developed a process for the production of biological scaffolds. Once produced, these scaffolds can be implanted back into the body, where they are repopulated with the patient’s own cells.
This is innovative because it means worn-out or diseased body parts can be replaced without the need for anti-rejection drugs. The company’s main product, the dCELL Vascular Patch, is permanently implanted into the human body for vascular repair and will be marketed later this year.
I’m very keen to find out more about Tissue Regenix. For now though, it seems to be another example not only of the wonderful advances being made in medicine, but also the extraordinary opportunities available to those investors brave enough to venture into this very tricky area.
Not for nothing has it been compared to oil exploration. Years of hard work and millions of pounds invested can come to nothing. But success can be worth a fortune.
• This article was written for Tom Bulford’s small-cap investment email
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