U of L gets patents for new cancer treatments, spinal cord treatments and a new bone graft product

The University of Louisville Research Foundation has recently been awarded patents for improved cancer treatments, a new bone graft material, and therapies for spinal cord damage, and two of the inventions are already licensed and will soon be utilized by the health care system, according to a School of Medicine news release.

The patent for a new bone graft cement called Trabexus EB is one of the patent's that has been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration for use. This bone replacement cement will be used by orthopedic surgeons to repair bones damaged through injury, tumor or other defects, according to the release.

Another recently patented treatment involves a "revolutionary" new way to treat paralysis following spinal cord injury that incorporates epidural stimulation to activate the spinal cord. This treatment, along with physical training and medications, allows individuals with spinal cord injury to have voluntary control of body movements and improve heart, lung and other autonomic functions. Research participants for this treatment have been able to move and stand unassisted, with some improvements in heart, pulmonary and bladder function, according to the release.

The foundation has also received a patent for an improvement to a cancer therapy that enhances immunotherapies used for the treatment of cancer and chronic viral infections, like HIV. This new method of stimulating the immune system "has significant potential" to make immunotherapies more effective and help protect against recurrence of the disease, according to the release.

They have also received a patent for software that detects areas of depleted lung function during radiation treatment for lung cancer and other lung diseases. This new 4-D computed tomography (CT) image analysis software can be used with existing lung imaging during radiation therapy to detect early changes in lung elasticity, allowing the treatment to be adjusted to prevent permanent breathing problems, according to the release.

U of L also received a patent for a treatment that can repair the spinal cord by taking a tissue biopsy from a patient's nose, isolating the stem cells from it, and then using these stem cells to regenerate the spinal cord to repair an injury. This treatment can also be used in the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes. This method of generating the stem cells has been licensed from UofL by RhinoCyte Inc. and is scheduled for a concept study at the University of Louisville Hospital with Phase I/II clinical trials beginning in 2016.

University of Louisville announces global licensing agreement with Novartis for collaboration to help transplant patients

The University of Louisville's Suzanne Ildstad 

is shown with research coordinator Thomas Mille

The University of Louisville announced Wednesday a research collaboration agreement between one of its researchers, Suzanne Ildstad, representing Regenerex LLC, with Novartis. The agreement will provide access to stem cell technology that could help transplant patients avoid taking anti-rejection medicine for life and may also serve as a platform for treatment of other diseases.

This global licensing agreement between Regenerex and Novartis will significantly enhance the university’s ability to carry out cutting edge research related to the Facilitating Cell, a novel cell discovered by Ildstad, CEO of Regenerex and director of U of L's Institute for Cellular Therapeutics, says a U of L news release.

"Being a transplant recipient is not easy. In order to prevent rejection, current transplant recipients must take multiple pills a day for the rest of their lives. These immunosuppressive medications come with serious side effects with prolonged use including high blood pressure, diabetes, infection, heart disease and cancer, as well as direct damaging effects to the organ transplant," Ildstad said in the release. "This new approach would potentially offer a better quality of life and fewer health risks for transplant recipients."

Ildstad published results of "Facilitating Cell Therapy," which is undergoing Phase II trials, in March 2012 in Science Translational Medicine. The results say the therapy enables five of eight kidney transplant patients to stop taking about a dozen pills a day to suppress their immune systems; this is the first study in which the donor and recipient did not have to be biologically related or immunologically matched.

Ildstad was originally recruited to U of L under the state's "Bucks for Brains" initiative for endowed professorships, advanced in by then-Gov. Paul Patton in 1998. Along with her research team, she began examining the facilitating cell platform technology for the treatment of kidney transplant recipients.

"Dr. Ildstad was among the first faculty members hired utilizing seed funds from the state to help us attract highly talented researchers through the Bucks for Brains program," U of L President Dr. James Ramsey said. "Regenerex demonstrates the potential for that vision to be realized bringing new jobs to the city, adding to the revenue from the Tax Increment Financing district and providing funding to U of L in support of our academic mission," he said.

The collaboration with Novartis provides for investments in research and applications of new technology as well as milestones and royalty payments from Regenerex to the university.

"The 'holy grail' of transplantation is immune tolerance, that is making the body recognize a transplanted organ as 'self' and not reject it as foreign tissue, but without the need for immunosuppressive drugs with their numerous serious side effects," said Dr. David L. Dunn, executive vice president for health affairs at U of L. "Dr. Ildstad and her team may well have solved this puzzle."

U of L prof earns $11.8 million grant renewal; has helped glean $100 million in federal grants in 17 years

A University of Louisville researcher has been awarded a $12.8 million grant to keep his adult stem cell project going.

The funds are from the National Institutes of Health and will allow Dr. Roberto Bolli, right, to continue to investigate how introducing genes into stem cells might improve stem-cell therapies; look at how diabetes affects stem cells; look at how proteins called cytokines affect stem cells during heart failure; and investigate the signaling pathways of stem cells in the body.

Bolli's project was granted $11.7 million in 2006. Since Bolli started working at U of L in 1994, he and his team have brought in more than $100 million in NIH grants. In one project, patients have reached the two-year mark after being infused with their own processed adult stem cells. That project is looking to find a way to use a patient's own cardiac stem cells to regenerate dead heart muscle after a heart attack.

"U of L has a mandate to become a national recognized metropolitan research university," President James Ramsey said. "One gauge is our faculty's ability to attract competitive grant fund from the NIH." Ramsey said the overall mission of the medical school is to improve the health of Kentuckians.