UNM.STC has just awarded gap funding to three UNM research groups to advance their technology from early-stage research to a proof-of-concept stage of development. The purpose is to attract corporate and investment capital to further grow the research into a product ready for commercialization.
“Inhibition of Dialysis-Induced Inflammation” is a proposal that seeks to identify compounds that can be added to dialysis medium that will protect leukocytes from pro-inflammatory stress during hemodialysis. The intended result is that after dialysis, patients will receive back leukocytes that are in a normal state rather than a pro-inflammatory state. It is the chronic pro-inflammatory state that leads to the cardiovascular diseases associated with end-stage renal disease.
The principal investigators, David J. VanderJagt emeritus professor in biochemistry and molecular biology, Vallabh O. Shah, an associate professor in biochemistry and molecular biology, and Loraine M. Deck, professor of Chemistry, will use the $25,000 award to continue their research.
A group of principal investigators including Associate Professor of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Plamen Atanassov, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Gabriel Lopez, Research Professor of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Dmitri Ivnitski, Research Assistant Professor of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Ravil Sitdikov and Research Associate Professor in Pathology at the UNM School of Medicine Stephen Young are working on “Multiplex Immunosensors for Rapid Diagnostics of Infectious Disease.
Their project is a flow-through biosensor that has significant potential to address clinical needs in point-of-care testing. The sensors may be used to perform quantitative assays not only of respiratory viruses but also a wide range of other analytes in real time. The flow-through immunosensor combines the analytical power, versatility, integration and reagent economy of micro-fluidic devices with the selectivity and sensitivity of antibody-antigen interactions.
The technology can ultimately be applied in a variety of patient-care settings, from primary care clinics and community outreach programs to emergency departments and hospitals. There is a significant opportunity to implement multiplexed assays in a variety of ways for treatment of infectious diseases, including screening, diagnostics, prognostics and therapy monitoring.
Another valuable aspect of the technology is its economy of scale. Multifunctional tests may be sold for many purposes, thus increasing units of sale and decreasing manufacturing costs. They will share the $25,000 award to further their research.
Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Bryce Chackerian will use his $25,000 award on his project “A New Virus-Like Particle Display System for Vaccine Development.” His technology is an improvement of traditional vaccine development. It uses virus-like particles based on vaccines that are highly immunogenic (able to elicit an immune response) and non-infectious.
Additionally, because virus-like, particle-based vaccines do not rely on viral replication for scalability, these vaccines can be made quickly and inexpensively. Furthermore, since this researcher has shown that virus-like, particle-based immunogens can be used to target self-antigen mediators of chronic diseases, allergies, asthma, and cancer are all good candidates for vaccine production using this system. This proposal also seeks to develop virus-like particles to develop a vaccine against allergy and asthma.
STC.UNM is a non-profit corporation formed and owned by UNM to protect and transfer its faculty inventions to the commercial marketplace.
For more information contact Denise Bissell (505) 272-7310; e-mail dbissell@stc.unm.edu or technology contact Lisa Kuuttila, CEO and President of STC.UNM at, (505) 272-7900 or via e-mail at, info@stc.unm.edu
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at December 17, 2007 04:19 PM