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Please Note: The technology listed below is not available to the public at this time. This technology is in the early stage of research and requires further development before it is ready for the marketplace. The VA is currently in the process of identifying potential companies who may be interested in licensing and/or further developing the technology through Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADA). Through cooperative research initiatives such as these, it is our hope and goal that commercial products will be fully developed and made available to benefit veterans and others.
VA TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITY BRIEF
Optimization of Three-Dimensional Cell Culture System for Models of Infectious Disease and Chemosensitivity
(#01-066)
OPPORTUNITY:
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is seeking a commercial partner to
further develop and/or license this technology through a Cooperative Research
and Development Agreement (CRADA) to expedite bringing it to market.
Pathogenic organisms and mammalian cells typically transform in traditional tissue culture. They can cease expression of many genes and often proliferate poorly. Pathogenic organisms can lose their virulence; this precludes the studies of how infectivity occurs and ways to overcome infection. Mammalian cells are particularly difficult to maintain in traditional tissue culture, as they rapidly lose characteristic receptors and cellular functions. It is believed that these changes result from the loss of the three-dimensional networks that are present in vivo. The rotating wall vessel provides a way to grow cells in microgravity. When the effects of gravity on cell cultures are minimized, the cells form three-dimensional aggregates that mimic the structure of native tissue and retain expression of their differentiated characteristics.
TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW:
Cultured human tissue closely resembling that found in vivo provides a medium
in which to study pathogenic organisms that fail to grow outside a host organism
or rapidly mutate when grown in a substitute host. The authenticity of the host
tissue and of the pathogen provided by the subject technology presents a valuable
opportunity for studying infectious diseases and for developing and testing
vaccines and other therapeutic treatments. In addition, the subject technology
can be used to culture cancerous tissue from affected people. Like cells from
traditional tissue, cancer cells also rapidly transform in traditional tissue
culture, displaying a different chemosensitivity than the tumor in situ. The
fidelity of cultures that are grown using rotating wall vessels helps to determine
the chemosensitivity and enhances the accuracy of drug- resistance studies.
TECHNICAL MERIT:
The subject technology overcomes the loss of cell differentiation and pathogenicity
observed in typical monolayer cultures as well as three-dimensional cultures
grown on support matrices. With the subject technology, the cells maintain their
characteristic features and activities, and materials used as support matrices
introduce no confounding variables. The subject technology is also superior
to animal models, which by their nature in accurately mimic human disease and
introduce potentially confounding variables, thereby limiting their usefulness.
The subject technology allows growth of mammalian cells in a three-dimensional
framework that maintains their differentiated state and typical gene-expression
patterns. When used for human cells, the resulting realistic, accurate cultures
provide an ethical and, it is claimed, reliable way of studying patterns of
pathogenicity, infectivity and chemosensitivity in the authentic host tissue.
These features would allow the subject technology to serve the following three
markets: anti-cancer market for development of cancer chemotherapeutics; biologics
market for development of vaccines against infectious diseases; and anti-infective
market for development of anti-infective pharmaceuticals including antibacterial,
antiviral and antifungal drugs.
PATENT STATUS:
Provisional patent application filed April 6, 2001 (60/282,007)
International patent application filed on April 5, 2002 (PCT/US02/11088)
US patent application filed on April 26, 2004 (10/474,075)
Federal Register: February 5, 2003 (Vol. 68, No. 24) p. 5979
US patent issued on July 17, 2007 (7,244,578a)
Continuation-In-Part application was filed on 7-16-07 (11/778,552). It is a continuation of US application 10/474,075.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Saleem Sheredos
Program Manager
Technology Transfer Program
Veterans Affairs
Office of Research & Development (12TT)
5th Floor
103 South Gay Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
202-380-5080
Fax 410.962.2141
e-mail: saleem.sheredos@va.gov