Potential UofL coronavirus breakthrough in development with California biomedical company

A promising technology developed by UofL cancer researcher Paula Bates, PhD, appears to block the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, from infecting human cells. Bates worked with Center for Predictive Medicine director Kenneth Palmer, PhD, to apply the technology, known as AS1411, to coronavirus and discovered it may stop the virus from “hijacking” nucleolin to replicate inside the body. AS1411 is now licensed to Qualigen Therapeutics Inc. which plans to support its continued development and ready it for market.

UofL immunologist Jun Yan discovers biomarker warning of cellular crisis that could cause death in COVID-19 patients

Jun Yan, MD, PhD, professor of surgery and microbiology and immunology at the University of Louisville, led a team of researchers in the discovery of an important biomarker that predicts a crisis in COVID-19 patients that could lead to death. His research may pinpoint way to save lives of approximately 20 percent of all COVID patients.

Palmer developed a drug that may prevent COVID-19

Kenneth Palmer, PhD, director of UofL’s Center for Predictive Medicine for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases (CPM), discovered that Q-Griffithsin, a compound co-owned by UofL, the National Cancer Institute and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as other compounds from industry sources may be useful against SARS-CoV-2. Current research with these compounds could eventually lead to a therapeutic agent against COVID-19.

UofL-born technology for treating Type 1 diabetes has commercial partner

A University of Louisville-born therapy that helps people with Type 1 diabetes stay off immunosuppressants by re-educating the body’s immune system to accept transplanted insulin-producing cells now has a commercial partner.

iTolerance Inc., a San Mateo, Calif.-based biotech company, has signed an exclusive license and intends to develop the therapy toward clinical use. The technology was co-invented at UofL and at the Georgia Institute of Technology with support from the National Institutes of Health and JDRF, which funds Type 1 diabetes research.

UofL technology that may inhibit pathway for cancer gets commercial partner 

A University of Louisville-born invention that may help treat cancer now has a commercial partner. Qualigen Therapeutics Inc., a California biotechnology company focused on developing novel therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases, has signed a license agreement for the technology and plans to fund continued development with UofL to ready it for market.

The technology works by targeting the RAS protein, which sends signals that regulate when and where the body produces and grows new cells. When mutated, the protein turns into a “stuck accelerator pedal,” according to UofL researcher Geoffrey Clark, PhD, who co-invented the technology with colleagues John Trent, PhD, and Joe Burlison, PhD.

UofL researchers rehydrate dried blood in weightless environment

Technologies in development by researchers at the University of Louisville are aimed at ensuring astronauts on long-range space missions have access to medical care. A UofL research team recently tested rehydrating dried red blood cells in a weightless environment. The UofL group completed more than 50 weightless cycles during two flights to test rehydrating the blood and the use of 3D-printed surgical instruments aboard a ZERO-G aircraft.

Bizarre 66 million-year-old fossil from Madagascar provides clues on early mammals

Guillermo Rougier, PhD, professor in the Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology, worked with David Krause, PhD, curator at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, to help identify a complete, 3-D fossil he had discovered on Madagascar.

Rougier, a paleontologist who specializes in the study of the skull and teeth of ancient mammals, worked with Krause and an international team of scientists to determine where animal the falls in the long history of mammalian evolution and what it tells us about geography and changes in global fauna over time.

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The Research Resource Facility (RRF) has been renamed the Comparative Medicine Research Unit (CMRU). The new name better reflects the true role of the unit, which functions as a dynamic and viable research unit within the Health Sciences Center. CMRU is directed by Leslie Sherwood, DVM, associate vice president for research services. 

J. Christopher States, PhD, received two awards from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The Center for Integrative Environmental Health Sciences, which he directs, is now funded by a $6.5 million, five-year NIEHS P30 Core Centers grant. States's own research program has received a two-year NIEHS R21 grant for $424,000.

La Creis Kidd, PhD,MPH, associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology and Our Highest Potential Endowed Chair in Cancer Research, is lead author on a paper published in Cancer Immunology Research. Individuals from environments that include a dense, diverse and deadly range of pathogens, such as those of African descent, require robust innate immune genetic programs to tolerate a high background of microbes and other environmental insults but respond rapidly and aggressively to legitimate threats. However, whether the innate immune program is defending against malaria or promoting tumorigenesis, an effective response must be profoundly nuanced, given the capacity for both Plasmodium and cancer to subvert immune defense strategies. Gene expression analysis of breast and prostate cancers indicates distinct immune profiles among groups of individuals who vary by geographic ancestry. Consequently, it is predicted that racial differences in innate immune programs will translate into ethnic differences in pro- and antitumor immunity, tumor progression and prognosis, leading to the current phenomenon that African Americans acquire earlier onset and more aggressive breast and prostate cancers. These genetic variations in the innate immune system suggest identification and targeting of novel immunologic therapies and their efficacy in racial/ethnic populations to reduce and eventually eliminate racial/ethnic disparities.