Novel Small Molecules for Promoting Nerve Regeneration
Scientific Relevance
Unlike most other tissues which have the ability to heal themselves after injury, damaged axons in the central nerve system are unable to regenerate. There are no existing therapies to promote CNS axon regeneration in humans. Identification of novel small molecules that promote nerve growth and nerve regeneration could provide compounds that can be manipulated to yield drugs useful in treatment of various neurodegenerative diseases.
Commercial Opportunity
Health care costs for CNS patients are staggering. For instance, the patient costs are estimated at $13 billion annually for SCI patients in the U.S. alone. Concerns about the specificity and efficacy of agents reported in the literature, researchers at the University of Miami and New York University have synthesized a novel family of small molecules that are potent and selective in promoting axon regeneration.
Competitive Advantage
Potent and selective
novel mechanisms that could lead to new therapy strategies.
Inventors
John Bixby, Vance Lemmon, Lynn Usher (UM), Young-Tae Chang, Jae-Wook Lee, and Jaeki Min (NYU).
The invention uses immunomodulating agents that can both stimulate the immune system or have an immunosuppressive effect. TNFR25 agonists and antagonists have pro and anti-inflammatory action, respectively. TNFR25 agonists can support tumor vaccination, while TNFR25 antagonists can treat disease caused by chronic inflammation and autoimmunity (e.g. inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's Disease).
Commercial Opportunity
Inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease cost between $3-5 billion annually to treat. To have a novel approach to these diseases that would also apply to transplantation autoimmunity is a unique commercial opportunity.
Competitive Advantage
Tumor vaccines that are currently available are often suppressed in the tumor environment. This approach increases the vaccine's ability to act on the tumor due to increased stability. The myriad of biological effects that this immunomodulating agent can achieve is far superior to anything currently in use.
A Novel Cell/Tissue Culture System to Enhance Cell Proliferation & Induce Cell Differentiation
Scientific Relevance
Conventional cell and tissue culture typically involved cells resting atop (or attaching to) a gas-impermeable plastic bottom, in a given volume of specific medium to maintain viability and function. For immortalized cell lines or cells that are not exquisitely depend on oxygen, this means of culture is sufficient and results in acceptable growth and differentiation for experimental needs. However, these conditions are sub-optimal for tissues with high metabolic requirements. The researchers at the University of Miami have designed a novel culture system whereby three dimensional tissues can receive oxygen both from the top (after diffusion through medium) and the bottom (through direct diffusion across a perfluorohydrocarbon-silicon membrane).
Commercial Opportunity
The Petri dish market is over two billion dollars a year. This novel system can be used to promote both growth and differentiation of stem/progenitor cells where oxygen becomes limiting as is invariably the case in conventional culture systems. Such application is of particular interest for cell types known for their high in vivo oxygen demands. The premise behind this approach is that, unless culture systems meet the physiological requirements of such cells, their in vitro differentiation from stem cells will be severely impaired. Among the tissues with a high metabolic rate whose differentiation may benefit from our invention are: pancreatic islet cells, liver, kidney, cardiac tissue, brain cells and lung epithelium, to name a few. Additionally, this device could also be used to improve the culture of primary or already differentiated tissues.
Competitive Advantage
Provides a more physiological mode of oxygen delivery, preventing hypoxia even in thick cellular aggregates.
Promotes cell viability and function
Enhances differentiation in stem cell systems where oxygen has been proven to act directly as a cell specification agent.
Inventors
Christopher A. Fraker, Juan Dominguez-Bendala, Camillo Ricordi & Luca Inverardi.
Rapid Identification of Ocular Fungal and Amoebic Pathogens
Scientific Relevance
Fungal infection of the eye, or ocular mycosis, is a serious condition that may result in loss of vision if the disease is not diagnosed and treated in time. Despite an increase in the incidence of the disease over the last decades, management remains a clinical challenge due to misdiagnosis and inadequate detection methods, which are often slow.
Commercial Opportunity
Mycotic keratitis is considered a leading cause of ocular morbidity throughout the world. This corneal infection, which is mostly caused by yeast or filamentous fungi, can have devastating and irreversible effects if not treated on time. For instance, if the disease is left untreated, 50% of infected eyes can suffer from visual impairment or loss of sight due to irreversible corneal damage. The incidence of the disease, which has increased over the past four decades, has been the result of overuse of topical steroids and antibacterial agents, the rise in the number of patients with immuno-deficiencies, trauma, chronic ocular diseases and corneal anesthetic abuse. Contact lens wearers are also a growing sector of the population at risk for fungal keratitis.
Competitive Advantage
High speed and high sensitivity for rapid and accurate diagnosis
Inexpensive
Versatile as a variety of probes can be added or subtracted to create different arrays that can be employed in a wide variety of applications
Inventors
Eduardo C. Alfonso, Darlene Miller, Mara Diaz and Jack W. Fell
Microparticles as a Treatment Method for Bleeding Disorders
Scientific Relevance
Microparticles (MP) derived from blood can be administered to a patient to help stop bleeding and decrease blood clotting time. This would be important in cases involving internal bleeding, trauma, surgery, and chemotherapy, where the patient's own blood prior to treatment could be banked for later use.
Commercial Opportunity
This technology addresses a critical necessity because of the endless need, and short supply, of blood and its products. The market for a platelet substitute product is significant. It is estimated that over 10,000,000 units of platelets were transfused in the United States last year at an average cost of $50 per unit, which equates to an a market potential of $500 million annually.
Competitive Advantage
At present, no synthetic microparticles or blood cells have emerged as being clinically useful. In addition, since the patient's own blood can be used, the risk of acquiring infectious agents from an external blood supply is decreased substantially.
Inventors
Wenche Jy, Joaquin Jimenez, Lawrence Horstman, Yeon Ahn, and Eugene Ahn
Myocarditis is a common inflammatory disease of the heart, estimated to account for about 30% of heart failure. Conventional diagnostic methods include 4-6 endomyocardial biopsies with consequent histologic evaluation. However, this standard technique results in a false negative rate of about 55%. The currently developed biomarker enables prediction of the likelihood of having inflammatory heart disease from a single endomyocardial biopsy with a sensitivity that greatly exceeds current standards. Furthermore, there is evidence that the biomarker may be detected in blood cells. Therefore, a simple venipuncture to detect the developed biomarker may replace the need for a diagnostic biopsy.
Commercial Opportunity
Myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of the heart, accounting for about 30% of heart failure. Given that specific treatment for myocarditis can reverse the disease process, the need for accurate identification of patients becomes apparent.
Competitive Advantage
There is no simple way to predict myocarditis especially in asymptomatic patients. Having access to a unique molecular signature associated with various aspects of cardiac diseases and disorders may allow for identification of patients with myocarditis with a positive predictive value of 80%. This would allow for patient treatment prior to symptoms and would add a huge number of potential patients to the market.
System and Method for Imaging Tear Film on Ocular Surface
Scientific Relevance
The present invention relates to a system and method for ophthalmic imaging and in particular to a system and method for imaging tear film on an ocular surface.
Commercial Opportunity
This invention provides an opportunity to improve eye medications by enhancing their binding properties, as well as improve design of ocular devices such as contact lenses.
Competitive Advantage
The invention enables imaging of a tear film with Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) instrumentation. Currently, there are no existing methods of tear film OCT imaging.
A Transcriptomic Biomarker of Cardiac Diseases and Disorders
Scientific Relevance
Although heart failure is a common disease with about 550,000 newly diagnosed patients every year, individual risk assessment is still an unsolved issue. Many prognostic factors have been suggested, but there is no agreement on a reliable standard. Furthermore, there is a need for improvements in the accuracy of diagnoses for heart disease. Conventional methods include endomyocardial biopsy and histologic evaluation of 4-6 samples. However, this standard technique results in a false negative rate of about 55%. Genetic biomarkers may allow us to predict the likelihood of having cardiac disease and related disorders and may be able to do so from a simple non-invasive blood test.
Commercial Opportunity
Myocarditis is an inflammation of the myocardium, the thick muscular layer of the heart that accounts for about 30% of heart failure.
Competitive Advantage
There is no simple way to predict myocarditis especially in asymptomatic patients. Having access to a unique molecular signature associated with various aspects of cardiac diseases and disorders may allow us to have up to 80% positive predictive correlation. This would allow patient treatment prior to symptoms and add a huge number of potential patients to the market.
The invention is a method to identify and characterize CD4+ T cells that may be used in therapies for autoimmune diseases such as mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
Commercial Opportunity
MCTD, SLE and rheumatoid arthritis are individually relatively rare conditions, but taken together, affect a substantial number of people. MCTD has an estimated prevalence of up to 15 cases per 100,000 people in the US. Lupus and rheumatoid arthritis are estimated to affect 1.4 million and 2.5 million persons respectively, in the US. Currently, there are no cures for these conditions, and treatment is very limited, or do not exist.
Competitive Advantage
This technology presents an opportunity to expand market share by introducing a novel product that does not have much competition. At the present time, there are limited treatment options for autoimmune diseases such as MCTD and lupus.
Intellectual Property Suite: Cell-Specific Treatments for Proteinuria
Scientific Relevance
A suite of intellectual property has been developed (4 patent applications, 2 patent applications in-preparation) that serves to attack the problem of proteinuria and kidney disease in a multifaceted, comprehensive approach that is inherently cell-specific. Continued research in this area with the aim of translation to the bedside is and remains the main focus of the Inventor.
Commercial Opportunity
There is a large unmet market need in the area of treatment of proteinuria. Employing this technology would allow for first in class renal-cell specific therapeutics to be identified and delivered to the commercial marketplace.
Competitive Advantage
Current protocols employed to treat chronic renal disease and end-stage renal failure are among the most expensive in all of Internal Medicine. Moreover, these protocols merely affect more general pathways (e.g. inflammatory) and are not kidney cell-specific. Renal cell-specific therapeutics would be substantially more effective in treating proteinuria and should significantly reduce the costs associated with using existing strategies.
