The University of Pittsburgh announced that Pitt innovators were issued 14 U.S. patents in August 2021.
Featured Patent: 11,078,159 “Compounds and Methods for Inhibiting EMT Pathways to Treat Cancer, Organ Fibrosis and Metabolic Disorders”
Too often, a normal and healthy cellular function can turn deadly when it occurs in cancerous cells. The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a cellular process crucial to embryonic development and wound healing in humans, but also indicates the beginning of metastasis in cancer patients and is responsible for organ fibrosis and resistance to therapy. Inhibiting the EMT pathway may produce highly effective new cancer therapies and also points to ways to treat and prevent fibrotic and metabolic diseases.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, in collaboration with researchers from Le Havre University, synthesized a series of novel compounds that may have the potential to inhibit EMT pathways; one candidate compound in particular has displayed incredible inhibitor activity against the Hippo pathway, as well as the Wnt and TGF-beta pathways that a crucial to inducing the EMT pathway. This compound suppresses cancer cell ability to undergo EMT, and therefore prevents the cells from proliferating as well as becoming drug-resistant by activating a degradation complex upstream of the Hippo transducer TAZ. In mice, this compound was shown to exert strong anti-tumor activity with no demonstrable toxicity.
For more information on this technology, contact Abhishek Sangal at asangal@innovation.pitt.edu.
Below is a list of patents issued to Pitt innovators in August 2021. You can also search the complete database of all Pitt innovations available for licensing.
Patent Number |
Title | Inventor(s) | Licensing Manager | Status | |||
11,077,227 | Ultrahigh Ductility, Novel Mg-Li Based Alloys for Biomedical Applications | Prashant Kumta; Jingyao Wu; Oleg Velikokhatnyi | Janice Panza | Available for licensing | |||
11,078,260 | Antibodies to Endoplasmin and Their Use | Soldano Ferrone; Xinhui Wang; Thomas Conrads; Elvira Favoino; Brian Hood | Maria Vanegas | Available for Licensing | |||
11,077,051 | Shear-Thinning Therapeutic Composition, and Related Methods | Xiaochu Ding; Yadong Wang; Jin Gao | Janice Panza | Available for licensing | |||
11,078,159 | Compounds and Methods for Inhibiting EMT Pathways to Treat Cancer, Organ Fibrosis and Metabolic Disorders | Abdelihadi Rebbaa; Sebastien Comesse; Adam Daich; Martin Lawson; Catalin Pintiala | Abhishek Sangal | Available for licensing | |||
11,077,105 | Therapy for Mitochondrial Fatty Acid Beta-Oxidation and Transport Disorders | Al-Walid Mohsen; Gerard Vockley | Maria Vanegas | Available for licensing | |||
11,083,702 | Anaplerotic Agents for Treatment of Disorders of Propionate and Long Chain Fat Metabolism | Gerard Vockley; Al-Walid Mohsen | Maria Vanegas | Available for licensing | |||
11,084,982 | Optically Transparent Polymeric Actuator and Display Apparatus Employing Same | Ravi Meenakshisundaram; | George Coulston | Available for licensing | |||
11,084,857 | NSP-Interleukin-10 Proteins and Uses Thereof | Yangzi Jiang; Rocky Tuan | Abhishek Sangal | Available for licensing | |||
11,090,363 | Vasointestinal Peptide Release From Microparticles | Steven Little; Andrew Glowacki | Janice Panza | Available for licensing | |||
11,090,389 | Mitochondrially Targeted Parp Inhibitor and Uses Thereof | Peter Wipf; Tanja Krainz; Robert Clark; Hulya Bayir | Maria Vanegas | Available for licensing | |||
11,091,523 | Engineered TGF-Beta Monomers and Their Use for Inhibiting TGF-Beta Signaling | Andrew Hinck; Traian Sulea | Maria Vanegas | Optioned | |||
11,105,686 | Spatial-Domain Low-Coherence Quantitative Phase Microscopy | Yang Liu; Randall Brand; Pin Wang; Shinkhar Fnu | Abhishek Sangal | Available for Licensing | |||
11,103,526 | Methods for Treatment Using Small Molecule Potassium-Sparing Diuretics and Natriuretics | Edwin Jackson; Stevan Tofovic | Andrew Remes | Optioned | |||
11,103,576 | Measles Virus Vaccine Expressing SARS-COV-2 Protein(s) | William Paul Duprex | Alex Ducruet | Available for Licensing |