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Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan Is the First Midwest
Rehabilitation Hospital to Participate in Proneuron’s
Clinical Research Trial for Spinal Cord Injury

Detroit, Michigan and L.A. California, November 16, 04 --- Proneuron Biotechnologies (www.proneuron.com) and the Detroit Medical Center’s Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan (RIM) (www.RIMrehab.org) announced today that RIM will participate as the first Midwest rehabilitation center in Proneuron’s international, multi-center, randomized-controlled Phase II study of ProCord, an experimental procedure for acute spinal cord injury (SCI).

Assisting RIM in screening spinal cord injury patients for this experimental procedure is Detroit Receiving Hospital, a national leader in trauma and emergency medicine. This unique partnership between an expert trauma center and a leading rehabilitation facility allows for efficient and continuous care of persons with spinal cord injuries.

“As a leader in the spinal cord injury community for more than 50 years, we have been following Proneuron’s research with great interest. We are excited to be involved in the second phase of this study and contributing to further advancements in SCI research,” said Terry Reiley, President, Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan.

Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan is one of the nation’s largest hospitals specializing in rehabilitation medicine and research. As southeast Michigan’s only rehabilitation hospital, RIM treats more spinal cord injury patients than any hospital in the state, including the most complex cases. Recently, RIM opened its Center for Spinal Cord Injury Recovery (www.centerforscirecovery.org), a world-class facility designed to implement and study the results of innovative treatments that may result in some level of improvement in persons with injured or damaged spinal cords.

This is one of the most exciting research project in which Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan has had the opportunity to participate," said Steve Hinderer, MD, medical director of RIM’s Center for Spinal Cord Injury Recovery, and principal investigator of the ProCord study at RIM.

The Phase II trial commenced at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Israel, in September 2003 and expanded to the U.S. in 2004. Currently, six other centers in the U.S. are participating in the study. They include Craig Hospital (Denver, CO), The Mount Sinai Medical Center (New York, NY), University Hospital (Newark, NJ) in cooperation with Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation (West Orange, NJ), Shepherd Center (Atlanta, GA) and Shriners Hospitals for Children (Philadelphia, PA).

“We are delighted to be working with the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan. Together with the esteemed research teams participating in this study, we hope to make great strides in the understanding of the effects of ProCord, with the goal of developing this currently experimental procedure for spinal cord injury patients worldwide,” said Mr. Nir Nimrodi, CEO of Proneuron.

This experimental study is open to patients who meet eligibility criteria, including but not limited to ASIA Grade A, C5-T11, within 14 days of injury. This is a randomized-controlled clinical trial. Patients found eligible for the study will be randomly assigned to either a treatment or control group, two treatment patients for every one control patient, on average. Control patients will not receive the procedure. All control and treatment patients will receive standard spinal cord injury rehabilitation and will receive follow-up testing for one year. It is crucial that trial site investigators are notified of a potential candidate within a few days of their spinal cord injury in order to give ample time for patients to enroll and participate in the 14-day window of the clinical trial.

Patient, Immediate Family of Patient and/or Physician inquiries:
24 hour a day Patient Recruitment Center:
Email: clinical.trial@proneuron.com
Telephone: 1 866 539 0767 (U.S. toll free) or 1 506 652 3486.
Fax: 1 866-214-7078
*Callers outside of the U.S., please use standard international dialing code
For additional information: www.proneuron.com

For additional information:
Cheryl Angelelli, Director, Marketing & PR, Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan
CAngelel@dmc.org, 313-966-8490.
Marjie Hadad, Media Liaison, Proneuron, Marjie.hadad@proneuron.com, +972-54-536-5220