Originally organized around the Founder's work pre-dating founding of Minerva Biotechnologies, involved in using nanoparticles in fields such as drug discovery, proteomics, opto-electronics and nanoscale biosensors, in 2001 management of the firm shifted strategy to use its nanoparticle technology in-house to develop and identify potential drug candidates. Minerva had been first to discover that cancer cells hijack an otherwise normal stem cell growth mechanism, involving a growth factor receptor called MUC1* (pronounced muk 1 star). By studying human stem cells in parallel with human cancer cells, Minerva scientists determined how cancer cells override the normal âshut offâ switch that stops stem cells from self-replicating indefinitely. This critical insight is enabling Minerva to develop a new class of anti-cancer and anti-metastasis drugs. The Company is developing anti-cancer drugs that target a cancer-specific growth factor receptor and a testis specific cancer antigen that promotes metastasis. The drugs being developing are antibody-based drugs (biologicals) that would address 80% of all solid tumor cancers and even higher percentages of metastatic cancers. Minervaâs proprietary cancer-targeting antibodies have also been integrated into chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) for T cell immunotherapy. Beginning in 2015, Minerva marketed its naïve state human iPS (induced pluripotent stem) cells and its naïve-inducing stem cell growth factor and reagents. Minerva is the first company to generate human naïve state pluripotent stem cells using a single, naturally occurring human stem cell growth factor. These earlier stem cells have a clean slate, and are more easily directed to develop into functional mature cells, which could be used for tra
