London, 03 August 2007 - Lawyers from the London office of Morrison & Foerster are advising ReNeuron Group plc, a leading UK-based stem cell therapy business, on the acquisition of the business assets of AmCyte Inc., a development stage cell therapy company based in Santa Monica, California.

ReNeuron is acquiring AmCyte's proprietary cell encapsulation technology, together with its U.S. laboratories and staff.  ReNeuron intends to combine its own well-characterised, scalable pancreatic cells with AmCyte's cell encapsulation system, in order to produce a best-in-class islet cell therapy for Type 1 diabetes patients.

The acquisition gives ReNeuron an operational presence in California, one of the world's leading centres for both academic and commercial stem cell research and development, and also enables the Company to explore other therapeutic cell types where ReNeuron's cell expansion technology and AmCyte's encapsulation system may deliver significant therapeutic benefit.

Morrison & Foerster fielded a cross office team of lawyers from its firms London and California offices.  The team included Partners Paul Claydon, Kristian Wiggert, Jonathan Dickstein and Mike Ward and associates James Halstead, Stephanie Wingader, Mark O'Donnell and Otis Littlefield.

Corporate partner,Paul Claydon, commented, “The UK is renowned for its position at the cutting edge of stem cell research. The acquisition of U.S. stem cell technology by companies such as ReNeuron, shows that UK companies can and are positioning themselves as world leaders in this new and dynamic area.”