Therapeutics

Displaying 11 - 20 of 23


Vascular Restoration Therapy with Cell-Penetrating CRADD Protein

Vascular inflammation caused by metabolic, autoimmune, and microbial insults mediates cardiovascular diseases that include hypertension and atherosclerosis (heart attacks, strokes), systemic lupus, and giant cell arteritis. An estimated 35 million Americans have hypercholesterolemia, contributing to 500,000 deaths underlying heart attacks and strokes. In these diseases, metabolic, autoimmune, and microbial insults continually challenge blood and vascular cells by triggering signaling to the nucleus mediated by BCL10. Genetic ablation of BCL10 rescues animals from atherosclerosis, aortic aneurysms, and fatty liver and insulin resistance due to overnutrition. Intracellular therapy with CP-CRADD is designed to extinguish BCL10-mediated noxious signals to avert vascular inflammation and its life-threatening complications including ruptured aneurysms in aorta and brain.


Licensing Contact

Mike Villalobos

615.322.6751
Therapeutics

Cell-Permeable Socs Proteins That Inhibit Cytokine-Induced Signaling

Scientists at Vanderbilt have developed a unique polypeptide using cell-penetrating SOCS polypeptides or SOCS sequences designed to inhibits cytokine signaling and thus prevent or treat inflammation or an inflammatory related disease such as diabetes. This strategy has been validated in NOD mice models for either induced or naturally occurring diabetes and have been efficacious.


Licensing Contact

Mike Villalobos

615.322.6751
Therapeutics

Protein that protects probiotics from desiccation, leading to improved gut colonization

Probiotic supplements undergo significant water loss before consumption, killing many of their bacteria and rendering them less effective. Vanderbilt researchers have discovered a protein that protects against damage caused by desiccation and shown that this molecular shield can be added to probiotics to help them survive and colonize the gut. This platform technology can be broadly incorporated into new or existing supplements to make them more efficacious and even improve costs and distribution.


Licensing Contact

Karen Rufus

615.322.4295

Inventors

Eric Skaar, Erin Green
Therapeutics

Human antibodies targeting a novel flu epitope for use as a universal flu vaccine and treatment

Scientists at Vanderbilt have discovered a new class of human antibodies specific to a novel target for the detection, prevention, and treatment of influenza A viruses (IAV). Using structural characterization, they have identified a novel antigenic site on the hemagglutin (HA) head domain that may be targeted by multiple antibodies simultaneously in a non-competitive manner. They found that administration of these antibodies against an otherwise lethal challenge with viruses of H1N1, H3N2, H5N1, or H7N9 subtypes confers protection when used as prophylaxis or therapy against major IAV subtypes that are pathogenic to humans. These antibodies may prove effective as a universal influenza treatment or in the design of a universal influenza vaccine.


Licensing Contact

Karen Rufus

615.322.4295

Inventors

James Crowe, Seth Zost

An Ergothioneine PET Radioligand for Imaging Oxidative Stress in Alzheimer's Disease

Vanderbilt researchers lead by Professor Wellington Pham, PhD, have developed a novel ergothioneine (ERGO) PET radioligand for imaging oxidative stress in Alzheimer's disease.


Licensing Contact

Masood Machingal

615.343.3548
Therapeutics
Neuroscience/Neurology

Cooling-Responsive Gel for Local Drug Delivery Applications

Vanderbilt researchers have created a cooling-responsive gel implant that meets the need for non-invasive local drug delivery and is simple to activate, requiring only an ice pack for some applications, eliminating complex clinical equipment. This implant is ideal for alternative pain management or delivery of cancer therapeutics.


Licensing Contact

Philip Swaney

615.322.1067

Inventors

Leon Bellan
Therapeutics

Long-Lasting and Self-Sustaining Cell Therapy System

Researchers at Vanderbilt have created a novel drug delivery system using two distinct T-cell populations that interact to promote engraftment and persistence in pre-clinical models, increasing the efficacy of T-cell therapies. Furthermore, "booster" treatments can be administered months after the first dose to produce an expansion of antigen specific T cells. These advantages result in longer-term therapeutic efficacy and could reduce the number of treatments required. This system also represents a viable self-renewing platform for the delivery of biologic drugs in patients who would otherwise require frequent administration.


Licensing Contact

Cameron Sargent

615.322.5907

New antibiotics against new targets in multi-drug resistant microorganisms

New everninomicin antibiotics including a potent bifunctional antibiotic natural product targeting two different and distant ribosomal sites are under development and can be readily produced using synthetic biology. Developing resistance to this bidentate antibiotic should be very difficult for pathogenic microorganisms.


Licensing Contact

Mike Villalobos

615.322.6751
Therapeutics
Infectious Disease

Systems and Methods for Optical Stimulation of Neural Tissues (Portfolio)

Vanderbilt researchers have developed a novel technique for contactless simulation of the central nervous system.  This involves the use of infrared neural stimulation (INS) to evoke the observable action potentials from neurons of the central nervous system.  While infrared neural stimulation of the peripheral nervous system was accomplished almost a decade ago, this is the first technique for infrared stimulation of the central nervous system. This technology has been protected by a portfolio of issued patents.


Licensing Contact

Ashok Choudhury

615.322.2503

New Molecules Clear Chronic Infections by Disrupting Bacterial Energy Production Pathways

New compounds developed at Vanderbilt demonstrate a unique mechanism of broad spectrum activity to stymy antibacterial resistance. The compounds are particularly useful in chronic infections where long term antibiotic therapy fails, because it specifically kills "small colony variants" -- the bacteria that have developed resistance mechanisms. These compounds show promise in treating Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), Bacillus anthracis (anthrax), and in overcoming difficult-to-treat infections in bone in cystic fibrosis patients. These compounds could be combined with new (and old) antimicrobial drugs to outwit resistant bacterial infections.


Licensing Contact

Karen Rufus

615.322.4295
Therapeutics