About us
We have brought together the best skills to meet the urgent needs of patients still missing a cure ~ Hemera’ Team
Hemera is a spin-off of the University of Verona and of the University of Milan, established in 2021 as a biotech company specialized in regenerative medicine for neurological diseases.
The company has the goal of accelerating the clinical pipeline of an autologous cell therapy for nervous tissue regeneration, whose first application relates to the cure of spinal cord lesions.
Our vision
We already look further ahead: our greatest ambition is to win the many open challenges in the field of neurological diseases still orphan of a cure.
The origin of the research path
In the laboratory of Neuropharmacology of the University of Verona, Ilaria Decimo and Francesco Bifari, under the guidance of the Director Guido Fumagalli, develop innovative and revolutionary ideas on tissue regeneration in the central nervous system.
The research path leads to considering that the immune system may have a role in possible repair of the neuronal damage. Thanks to the collaboration with the immunologist Massimo Locati from the University of Milan, the novel Hemera’s therapy starts to take shape.
Every year in the world 500,000 people suffer a spinal cord injury.
The medical challenge
The laboratory’s work immediately attracts the attention of Associations of spinal cord-injured patients that help to bear the costs of basic research and motivate scientists to design strategies to repair the spinal cord damage caused by a trauma.
Research efforts focus on one of the most tragic medical conditions that can suddenly hit anyone during the life course.
Spinal cord injury is a serious and highly disabling disease caused by traumas, infections, vascular deficiencies, or tumors that severely impair the nervous system functioning and therefore the motor, sensory, and functional capacities of a person, up to tetraplegia.
To date, there is no cure for this condition that has a deep impact on the quality of life of people, often young, with very significant social, healthcare, emotional, and family costs: the average expenditure per patient is 2 million euros.
Hemera, in response to this unsolved medical issue, is developing an autologous cell therapy for nervous tissue regeneration, whose first application relates to the cure of spinal cord lesions.
Our mission
IHemera’s next goal is to prove the efficacy and the safety of the REMAST therapy in humans and to establish a standard protocol for the production of the cell therapy as a pharmaceutical product.
Once reached this goal in the time needed to ensure all the verifications on the efficacy and the safety of the medicinal product required by the regulatory bodies, Hemera will fulfill its primary MISSION.
To realize the first therapy that can give back a possibility of autonomy to the patient with a spinal cord lesion.
Our values
In this extraordinary path we are united and guided by profound ethical values.
Passion and urge
Two sides of the same force that drives us towards our goal to translate our scientific research findings to clinical practice in the shortest time possible.
Moral responsibility
We feel the moral duty to give concreteness to a discovery that could change the fate of many patients missing a cure.
Rigor of science
The values of knowledge and multidisciplinarity along with scientific rigor guide our work to guarantee the maximum contribution of expertise to a great project.
Dialogue and inclusion
To be innovators means to think and to act “out of the box”, to push the boundaries, to create a dialogue between worlds perceived as distant from each other. Hence, we aim to integrate research and business, science and community.
Strategic partnerships
Università degli Studi di Verona
Università di Milano La Statale
La Colonna Associazione Lesioni Spinali aps
Villa Beretta
Miltenyi
G.A.L.M O.d.V. Gruppo Animazione Lesionati Midollari
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