Revolutionary science restores horse's Olympic hopes
March 2, 2012
Two years ago, Angelli, a grand prix showjumping horse from Southern California, was facing retirement or, at worst, euthanasia. His career as a contender for the 2012 Olympic Games was in tatters.
Harley Brown and Angelli.
Just the previous weekend, he and his international rider and trainer, Harley Brown of Australia, had been unable to compete in a major Californian show, as the previously grand prix level show jumper could not clear even the lowest of jumps.
Then a phone call was made to an internationally recognised veterinarian and scientist who travels the world as a consultant from New Zealand.
Three days later, Dr Patrick Casey arrived with his ultrasound machine and, after examining Angelli, gave Harley the heartbreaking news.
"He's torn his hind tendon badly, sort of shredded it," Casey explained.
Tendon injuries can be career-ending for horses - only 5 to 15 per cent of those with damaged tendons ever make it back to competition.
Casey explained a revolutionary tendon treatment that had already been shown to get 85 per cent of horses with torn tendons back to full competition.
It involves taking about 100 tendon cells from the injured horse without causing any harm to the animal.
Using a patented procedure, 20 to 40 million tendon cells are then grown in an incubator and transplanted back to the site of injury.
Brown and Angelli's owner, Mark Harryman, knew that unless they had a go, all hope was lost for their horse's future jumping career.
The treatment worked. Not only is Angelli's shredded tendon healed, but he has a chance to be selected to jump at the London Olympics for Australia with Harley Brown.
"We just could not have ever imagined how well this science works," Brown said.
"I have never heard of a horse coming back from this injury, let alone being competitive at the highest level. It's just like a dream."
Late in March, Casey, Brown and Harryman will be reunited in Wellington, Florida, where Angelli's American preparation will end and he will fly to Europe for more pre-Olympic trials.
It is fair to say that Dr Casey "wouldn't miss it for the world and, considering where I come from, wouldn't mind a cold one to celebrate."
Last year, Casey set up a public company in the United States called Therapy Cells, Inc.
It holds the exclusive technology that allows adult cells from a specific tissue, such as an Achilles tendon, to grow again from individual cells, to enact repair and regeneration of that tissue, effectively bypassing the need for stem cell treatment.
The company has developed a novel and highly efficient method of growing tendons and articular cartilage for auto transplantation into injured horses or people.
Of real interest to veterinarians worldwide is the clinical success in horses.
Sixty-six horses have been treated with therapy cells to date. The data accumulated from horses will ultimately have direct application in seeking Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for human use.
The company's technique dispenses with the traditional notion that cells cannot divide once they are fully mature.
Dr Patrick Casey
Casey has shown that adult cells, given the right environment, can be induced to divide in the laboratory. These newly grown cells can then be put back into damaged tissue in the body, to enact tissue and organ healing.
"With a growing level of trial success in horses, Therapy Cells' target is to gain FDA approval, and in short order has direct application for human tendon repair," Casey says.
"An initial valuation of $US30 million for our science and technology has been appraised.
"FDA approval for clinical use of this technology in the human, will likely increase this factor by at least 10 times."
Casey graduated as a veterinarian from Massey University in 1988, at the age of 21, and then from the University of California in 1992 with a Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Pathology).
During his time in the United States he also completed an equine surgical internship at Hagyard-Davidson and McGee, in Lexington, Kentucky, followed by a three-year residency program in Equine Reproduction, with a minor in Equine Medicine at UC Davis.
In the early 1990s he received a post-doctoral fellowship from the Equine Research Laboratory at the University of California, which allowed him to set up with the late, world renowned, Professor Liggins at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Harley Brown and Angelli in June 2011:
March 2, 2012
Two years ago, Angelli, a grand prix showjumping horse from Southern California, was facing retirement or, at worst, euthanasia. His career as a contender for the 2012 Olympic Games was in tatters.
Harley Brown and Angelli.
Just the previous weekend, he and his international rider and trainer, Harley Brown of Australia, had been unable to compete in a major Californian show, as the previously grand prix level show jumper could not clear even the lowest of jumps.
Then a phone call was made to an internationally recognised veterinarian and scientist who travels the world as a consultant from New Zealand.
Three days later, Dr Patrick Casey arrived with his ultrasound machine and, after examining Angelli, gave Harley the heartbreaking news.
"He's torn his hind tendon badly, sort of shredded it," Casey explained.
Tendon injuries can be career-ending for horses - only 5 to 15 per cent of those with damaged tendons ever make it back to competition.
Casey explained a revolutionary tendon treatment that had already been shown to get 85 per cent of horses with torn tendons back to full competition.
It involves taking about 100 tendon cells from the injured horse without causing any harm to the animal.
Using a patented procedure, 20 to 40 million tendon cells are then grown in an incubator and transplanted back to the site of injury.
Brown and Angelli's owner, Mark Harryman, knew that unless they had a go, all hope was lost for their horse's future jumping career.
The treatment worked. Not only is Angelli's shredded tendon healed, but he has a chance to be selected to jump at the London Olympics for Australia with Harley Brown.
"We just could not have ever imagined how well this science works," Brown said.
"I have never heard of a horse coming back from this injury, let alone being competitive at the highest level. It's just like a dream."
Late in March, Casey, Brown and Harryman will be reunited in Wellington, Florida, where Angelli's American preparation will end and he will fly to Europe for more pre-Olympic trials.
It is fair to say that Dr Casey "wouldn't miss it for the world and, considering where I come from, wouldn't mind a cold one to celebrate."
Last year, Casey set up a public company in the United States called Therapy Cells, Inc.
It holds the exclusive technology that allows adult cells from a specific tissue, such as an Achilles tendon, to grow again from individual cells, to enact repair and regeneration of that tissue, effectively bypassing the need for stem cell treatment.
The company has developed a novel and highly efficient method of growing tendons and articular cartilage for auto transplantation into injured horses or people.
Of real interest to veterinarians worldwide is the clinical success in horses.
Sixty-six horses have been treated with therapy cells to date. The data accumulated from horses will ultimately have direct application in seeking Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for human use.
The company's technique dispenses with the traditional notion that cells cannot divide once they are fully mature.
Dr Patrick Casey
Casey has shown that adult cells, given the right environment, can be induced to divide in the laboratory. These newly grown cells can then be put back into damaged tissue in the body, to enact tissue and organ healing.
"With a growing level of trial success in horses, Therapy Cells' target is to gain FDA approval, and in short order has direct application for human tendon repair," Casey says.
"An initial valuation of $US30 million for our science and technology has been appraised.
"FDA approval for clinical use of this technology in the human, will likely increase this factor by at least 10 times."
Casey graduated as a veterinarian from Massey University in 1988, at the age of 21, and then from the University of California in 1992 with a Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Pathology).
During his time in the United States he also completed an equine surgical internship at Hagyard-Davidson and McGee, in Lexington, Kentucky, followed by a three-year residency program in Equine Reproduction, with a minor in Equine Medicine at UC Davis.
In the early 1990s he received a post-doctoral fellowship from the Equine Research Laboratory at the University of California, which allowed him to set up with the late, world renowned, Professor Liggins at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Harley Brown and Angelli in June 2011:
