About EarCell
Our story begins in the labs of Dr. Robert Becker, the Author of the 1985 book The Body Electric, in the early 1970’s He asked “Can we achieve organ regeneration with a bioelectric stimulation approach?” The idea revolved around taking cues from regenerative biology, and then applying carefully selected bioelectric signals that can target relevant pathways to directly heal cells and tissues in place within the body. The precise controlled bioelectric signaling is intended to activate those cells and protein expressions in a way that allows the body to heal itself. Dr. Becker published a series of experiments where he demonstrated the ability for bioelectric stimulation to influence the regeneration and healing of organs and limbs in amphibians and other small animals. Shortly after the publication of The Body Electric Howard J. Leonhardt the founder of Leonhardt Ventures reached out to Dr. Becker to initiate a research collaboration – https://www.amazon.com/Body-Electric-Electromagnetism-Foundation-Life/dp/0688069711
Knowing that natural cellular regeneration was possible in other species, our founder looked for bioelectric pathways by studying areas of active regeneration in the human body.
In 1988 Leonhardt Ventures collaborative advisor and researchers Dr. Race Kao and Dr. George Magovern completed the first cases of stem cell repair of damaged large animal hearts, published in 1989 in The Physiologist –https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC325230/pdf/thij00033-0015.pdf. This eventually led to the Leonhardt organization leading a team in The Netherlands the completed the landmark pioneering first-in-man case of non-surgical muscle stem cell repair of human heart led by Dr. Patrick Serruys, Dr. Peter Smits, Dr. Warren Sherman, Dr. Kumar Ravi and Dr. Doris Taylor. This went on to published studies pilot, Phase I, Phase II and Phase II/III studies in JACC, EuroIntervention, American Heart Journal, European Heart Journal and other leading publications – http://www.onlinejacc.org/content/42/12/2063/F1
In 1999 Leonhardt collaborative researcher Dr. Shinichi Kanno published in the American Heart Association Journal CIRCULATION the first paper on bioelectric ischemic limb regeneration. This led to an issued U.S. patent filed by the Leonhardt team on behalf of Dr. Kanno and to the formation of Vascustim – https://leonhardtventures.com/vascustim/ – a startup specializing in leg and foot ischemia treatment and diabetic ulcer recovery now in clinical – trials https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10338463
Also in 1999 Howard Leonhardt began developing a series of improved bioelectric stimulation and organ regeneration devices and compositions and began filing a series of patents. In total Howard J. Leonhardt the Founder of EarCell has 21 issued U.S. patents related to organ regeneration and recovery and dozens more patent claims currently pending at the USPTO. One of the earliest of these patents filed https://www.google.com/patents/US20050171578 in July 2001 described for the first time a bioelectric stem cell homing signal. A signal that attracts a body’s own stem cells from bone marrow, fat tissue and circulated blood to a specific stimulated target tissue on demand.
EarCell was founded in 2016 to translate the breakthrough work of our founder and his former late mentor Dr. Robert Becker into new treatments, where controlled tissue regeneration with locally delivered bioelectric signals, stem cells, growth factors, selected exosomes, selected Micro RNAs, selected alkaloids, matrixes and nutrient hydrogels could have profound therapeutic potential in restoring lost hearing and perhaps even giving hearing for the first time to those born without it. This is not any easy goal to accomplish but our EarCell team is dedicated to this task.