- Aims to evaluate the preclinical safety and feasibility of the Neuro-Spinal Scaffold™ with stem cells -

InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NVIV), a research and clinical-stage biomaterials and biotechnology company with a focus on treatment of spinal cord injuries (SCIs), today announced that it has entered into a joint research agreement with Q Therapeutics, Inc., a privately held developer of clinical-stage cell therapies for central nervous system (CNS) disease and injury.

The research collaboration is focused on the evaluation of the combination of InVivo's proprietary PLGA-PLL based Neuro-Spinal Scaffold with Q Therapeutics' adult neural progenitor cells, including those from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The two companies will share their respective technologies to explore the potential pre-clinical safety, feasibility and synergistic properties of the combined technologies for applications in the CNS.

Richard Toselli, M.D., InVivo's President and Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are excited about our research collaboration with Q Therapeutics, a leading developer of adult neural progenitor cell therapies to treat debilitating CNS disease and injury. Although InVivo remains very focused on and optimistic about the potential clinical benefit of the Neuro-Spinal Scaffold as a stand-alone technology, we believe this scientific partnership will allow both parties the opportunity to evaluate in parallel whether there is also a potential additive preclinical benefit of the combined technologies."

About InVivo Therapeutics

InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. is a research and clinical-stage biomaterials and biotechnology company with a focus on treatment of spinal cord injuries. The company was founded in 2005 with proprietary technology co-invented by Robert Langer, Sc.D., Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Joseph P. Vacanti, M.D., who then was at Boston Children's Hospital and who now is affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital. In January 2018, the company announced updated clinical evidence, including improvements in patients with acute spinal cord injury (SCI), from its INSPIRE study of the Neuro-Spinal Scaffold™. The publicly traded company is headquartered in Cambridge, MA.

About Q Therapeutics, Inc.

Q Therapeutics is a clinical-stage company developing adult neural progenitor cell therapies to treat debilitating CNS disease and injury. The Company has patented processes to derive and manufacture neural progenitor cells from any tissue source, including iPSCs. Its first therapeutic product candidate, Q-Cells® (glial-restricted progenitor cells), is intended to restore or preserve normal CNS activity by supplying essential nerve cell functions. Q-Cells may be suitable to treat a range of CNS disorders, including demyelinating conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS), transverse myelitis (TM), cerebral palsy and stroke, as well as neurodegenerative diseases and injuries such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, and Alzheimer's disease. Q Therapeutics has obtained Investigational New Drug (IND) clearance from the FDA for Phase 1/2a trials in both ALS and TM for Q-Cells. In addition, the FDA has granted Q-Cells orphan drug status in both ALS and TM as well as fast track designation in ALS. For more information, see www.qthera.com.

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