MONT-SAINT-GUIBERT, Belgium, July 29, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Cardio3 BioSciences, a leading Belgian biotechnology company specialising in regenerative therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, today announces that Atta Behfar, M.D. Ph.D, of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, USA will spend a portion of his research rotation visiting Cardio3 BioSciences. Dr. Behfar is a Clinical Investigator Fellow through Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education. As part of his educational residency, he is in Belgium on a research rotation. Mayo encourages all students to explore outside research opportunities as part of their clinical investigator fellowship.

Dr. Behfar will spend his twelve month rotation at the Cardio3 BioSciences research labs as well as in the Cardiovascular Center in Aalst. Cardio3 BioSciences and the Cardiovascular Center of Aalst, along with Mayo Clinic, have collaborated in the development of Cardio3 BioSciences lead product C-Cure(R), a revolutionary stem cell treatment for heart failure. The technology underlying C-Cure was originally licensed to Cardio3 BioSciences from Mayo Clinic in 2006 and Dr. Behfar is one of the Mayo Clinic inventors involved in the C-Cure technology. Andre Terzic M.D. Ph.D Mayo Clinic, is also an inventor of the technology licensed to Cardio3 BioSciences.

Dr. Behfar was recently recognised for his Mayo Clinic research on the subject that has led to C-Cure's development at the American College of Cardiology national conference and given the Herman K. Gold Young Investigator Award.

C-Cure is designed to reprogram the patient's own stem cells into new heart cells to rebuild the heart. The technology directs the patient's cells to become cardiopoietic cells - cells 'programmed' to become new heart muscle cells when injected back into the heart of a patient, replacing those cells lost during heart failure and restoring heart function.

Cardio3 BioSciences has recently announced positive three-month safety data and preliminary efficacy results from its Phase II stage clinical trial of C-Cure in heart failure. C-Cure demonstrated a very good safety profile and positive trends in physiological and clinical measures that suggest that C-Cure, as anticipated from animal model data, is acting on heart muscle in a way that could yield important clinical benefits.

Dr. Christian Homsy, CEO of Cardio3 BioSciences, added: We are delighted that Dr. Behfar will be spending his research rotation in Belgium as a visiting scientist at Cardio3 BioSciences and at the Cardiovascular Center at Aalst. It is a very exciting time for Cardio3 Biosciences with C-Cure having shown encouraging early results in a clinical setting.

A quote attributed to Dr. Behfar in the Cardio3 BioSciences press release of July 14th 2010 should have been attributed to Christian Homsy, Cardio3 CEO.

Mayo's School of Graduate Medical Education has more than 1,400 residents and fellows participate in Mayo Clinic graduate medical education programs each year. Currently, more than 19,000 alumni of Mayo's residencies and fellowships practice throughout the United States and the world.

About Cardio3 BioSciences

Cardio3 BioSciences is a leading Belgian biotechnology company specialising in regenerative therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. The Company's lead product, C-Cure(R), is a highly innovative approach to the treatment of heart failure, one of the world's most pressing unmet medical needs. Based on a strategy developed by Cardio3 BioSciences' founders and leveraging technology licensed from Mayo Clinic, C-Cure is designed to reprogram the patient's own stem cells into new heart cells to rebuild the heart.

The Cardio3 BioSciences team has extensive experience in developing and commercialising new pharmaceutical products and medical technologies and the Company's strategy is to drive the clinical development of C-Cure and to market the product itself in major territories.

Cardio3 BioSciences was founded in July 2007 and is based in Mont-Saint-Guibert in the Walloon region of Belgium.

About C-Cure and Heart Failure

Heart failure is a serious and common condition in which the heart cannot pump enough blood through the body, leaving the patient debilitated and unable to conduct a normal life. It can result from heart attacks or a number of other causes. Patients suffering from the condition can experience shortness of breath and extreme exhaustion. It affects 28 million patients worldwide and this number is predicted to double by 2020. Therapies available for chronic heart failure aim at slowing down the disease progression, but with the exception of heart transplant, existing drugs or devices do not cure chronic heart failure.

C-Cure is produced by taking a patient's own stem cells and, through a proprietary process, differentiating them into cardiopoietic cells that can regenerate damaged heart muscle. The cardiopoietic cells are injected into the heart of a patient with heart failure where they are designed to behave identically to those cells lost in heart failure without carrying the risk of rejection, something that has not been achieved with previous cell therapies for this indication. C-Cure is the outcome of multiple years of research conducted at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota, USA) and at the Cardiovascular Center in Aalst (Aalst, Belgium).

Disclosures

Mayo Clinic holds equity in Cardio3 BioSciences as a result of intellectual property licensed to the company.

Forward looking statements about the technology and its potential cannot be confirmed by Mayo Clinic at this time.

Nina Enegren nina.enegren@citigatedr.co.uk +44(0)207-282-1050 Chris Gardner Chris.Gardner@citigatedr.co.uk

SOURCE: Cardio3 BioSciences

CONTACT: Nina Enegren: nina.enegren@citigatedr.co.uk, +44(0)207-282-1050;Chris Gardner, Chris.Gardner@citigatedr.co.uk