Creative Medical Technology Advances Project PHOENIX into Nationwide AI-Driven Virtual Data Collection for Veterans Exposed to Burn Pit Toxins

Creative Medical Technology Holdings, Inc.查看公司主页 (NASDAQ: CELZ), a clinical-stage biotechnology company advancing regenerative medicine, immune modulation, and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technologies, announced on June 16, 2026 that Project PHOENIX has advanced into its nationwide virtual data collection phase. The regulatory-approved, AI-driven registry — part of the company's CELZ-Biodefense (搜索)搜索该药品 Regenerative BioDefense Initiative — is designed to support U.S. veterans exposed to burn pits, toxic environmental hazards, and related service-connected exposure risks.

The milestone moves the program from regulatory clearance into operational execution: decentralized access, virtual data capture, field-capable collection logistics, multi-omics integration, and AI-ready data architecture. The platform is designed to support an initial cohort of at least 1,000 veterans across the United States and to create a scalable foundation for future exposed military and civilian populations.

"Regulatory approval allowed us to move forward; nationwide virtual execution is what allows us to scale," said Timothy Warbington, President and CEO of Creative Medical Technology Holdings. "Project PHOENIX is designed to meet veterans where they are — through mobile-app engagement, field-capable logistics and AI-driven collection and interpretation — while building a proprietary data engine that may help define the molecular consequences of toxic exposure and guide future therapeutic development in a cost-effective manner."

A Decentralized, Veteran-Centric Model

The decentralized model enables eligible veterans to participate from anywhere in the United States through a virtual mobile-app data collection system that captures exposure history, symptom patterns, patient-reported outcomes, longitudinal health information, and other relevant data. When biospecimen collection or additional in-person data capture is required, CELZ's field-capable workflow allows trained collection teams to coordinate locally with participating veterans, reducing or eliminating the need for travel to centralized research sites.

The program is structured to leverage existing Company infrastructure, previously developed intellectual property, internal capabilities, and established vendor relationships. CELZ does not currently expect the initiative to require additional fundraising. "Capital discipline matters in biotechnology," Warbington added. "By leveraging infrastructure and technologies already in place, we believe CELZ can advance a national Regenerative BioDefense program while maintaining focus on shareholder value, operational efficiency and the needs of veterans."

AI-Driven Multi-Omics Platform and the Toxic Exposure Atlas

Project PHOENIX is designed to integrate real-world exposure histories and longitudinal participant data with multi-omics profiling — including genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic, inflammatory, immunologic, clinical, and cellular-response data — where appropriate and subject to applicable consent, privacy, research, and regulatory requirements.

The platform will compare multi-omics signatures from exposed veterans against non-exposed reference populations. By applying AI-driven interpretation algorithms to these datasets, CELZ aims to identify biomarkers, exposure-associated disease pathways, risk signatures, and potential therapeutic targets that may support the development of targeted drugs, biologics, biotherapeutics, regenerative cell therapies, and other precision interventions.

As participation grows, CELZ is developing the CELZ-Biodefense (搜索)搜索该药品 Toxic Exposure Atlas, a proprietary AI-enabled discovery asset intended to organize exposure history, clinical outcomes, multi-omics signatures, and disease biology into an interpretable framework. The Atlas is expected to support identification of molecular signatures associated with burn pit and toxic exposure, stratification of participants by molecular risk profiles, discovery of biomarkers linked to respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological, inflammatory, immune-mediated, and systemic effects, and creation of iPSC-based models to study exposure-related injury pathways and screen therapeutic approaches.

Addressing a National Priority

Burn pit and toxic exposure concerns remain a national priority, with federal initiatives such as the PACT Act expanding health care and benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances. The Department of Veterans Affairs has described open-air burn pit use as a common practice in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other areas of the Southwest Asia theater of military operations, with health effects potentially influenced by waste type, proximity, duration, and frequency of exposure.

CELZ emphasizes that its approach is designed to complement — not replace — existing veteran health care, VA benefits processes, toxic exposure screenings, or the VA Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry. The broader national biodefense landscape is also evolving as policymakers and defense health leaders focus on naturally occurring, accidental, and deliberate biological incidents.

"Our strong foundation in regenerative medicine is supporting our growth and evolution into a Regenerative BioDefense platform company," said Warbington. "We are building infrastructure that may support veterans today, strengthen national medical readiness and create a proprietary discovery engine for targeted drugs, biologics, biotherapeutics and regenerative therapeutics for future exposed populations while still accelerating our existing programs and platforms."