Our partners include:

• Pharma and biotech companies interested in solving a specific technical issue, tapping into world-class resources, or expanding their business through licensing technology from NIH
• Investors (angels, venture capital, private equity, etc.) starting a new company or adding to the pipeline of portfolio companies
• Academics interested in finding a collaborator or research materials
• Nonprofits interested in finding treatment options for patients or developing NIH technologies 

Featured Opportunities

Peanut Therapeutics and Diagnostics to Treat Severe Food Allergies

Inventors at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) are seeking a licensee or collaborator for a therapeutic strategy to safely and sustainably desensitize allergic patients compared to current oral immunotherapies. This technology can be incorporated in a diagnostic to track sustained response to an allergen. These NIEHS inventors have determined how human antibodies interact with peanut allergens and have identified three immunodominant epitopes on the major peanut allergen, Ara h 2, that led to sustained tolerance to the allergen. Select amino acid residues on Ara h 2 were mutated to abrogate binding to patient antibodies. These mutant Ara h 2 proteins could be used to determine if patients possess these key antibodies and to track patient progress towards sustained tolerance.

The same Ara h 2 mutations that knock out individual antibody binding could be combined into a so-called hypoallergen which demonstrated a reduced ability to inhibit IgE from sera binding in allergic patients. Using a mouse model for passive cutaneous anaphylaxis, the researchers saw a reduction in anaphylactic response using the Ara h 2 hypoallergen when the mouse was primed with pooled human allergic sera. This indicates that the hypoallergenic Ara h 2 mutant could be used as a safer therapy to reduce the risk of adverse events including anaphylactic responses to peanuts.  Using the diagnostics proposed above, the hypoallergen could be customized for individual patients to tailor the risk of anaphylaxis and therapeutic effectiveness.

Potential Commercial Applications:

• Diagnostics for therapeutic progress
• A therapeutic strategy to desensitize allergenic patients

Competitive Advantages:

• Elicits allergy protection with reduced side effects typical for oral immunotherapy
• Potential to combine multiple allergens in one treatment
• Can diagnose a sustained response to an allergen
• Treatment may be personalized to address unique patient allergenic epitopes

NIEHS is seeking a licensee for this technology. Further information can be found on the Peanut Therapeutics and Diagnostics to Treat Severe Food Allergies. 

Co-Development or Licensing Opportunity for a Wearable Device for Monitoring Pregnancy Health

Inventors at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) have created a wearable, wireless device and protocol for continuously monitoring pregnancy health. The device can monitor placental oxygenation levels, multiple physiological signals and movement activities of a fetus and mother. The daily measurement results can be viewed from the cloud by the patient’s healthcare provider to allow for remote assessment and suggestions.

Monitoring these health signals can help identify adverse pregnancy outcomes and allow for earlier interventions. This would be a first-to-market device for continuous monitoring. Current non-invasive techniques are expensive, bulky, and do not offer continuous monitoring of fetal physiologic signals and placental oxygenation.

Potential commercial applications of this device include:

• Low cost and flexible method of continuously monitoring pregnancy health.
• Early identification of adverse outcomes such as reduced uteroplacental perfusion and stillbirth.
• Potential for device to be applied in general health monitoring or sleep monitoring.
• Daily measurement results may be collected by a cellphone and uploaded to the cloud for patient’s healthcare provider to remotely review and provide health suggestions. 

This device has multiple competitive advantages, including:

• Wearable and non-invasive placenta and fetal monitoring device.
• Capable of 24/7 monitoring of mother and fetal well-being.
• Lower power consumption.
• Monitors multiple physiological signals and movement activities for both mother and fetus. 

NICHD is seeking research co-development partners and/or licensees for clinical validation and to further develop this technology. Further information on this opportunity can be viewed on the abstract, A Wearable Device for Monitoring Pregnancy Health. 

Clinical Diagnostic Tool in the Detection, Monitoring, and Management of Acute and Chronic Diseases

Inventors at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) are seeking a licensee or collaborator for a clinical diagnostic tool for measuring vitamin C elimination by human kidneys that can be used for detecting, monitoring, and managing acute and chronic diseases.

This technology includes a clinical diagnostic tool for measuring vitamin C elimination by human kidneys that can be used for detecting, monitoring, and managing acute and chronic diseases. Findings revealed significant associations between vitamin C renal leak status and clinical variables affecting renal function and blood glucose. The technology uses vitamin C depletion-repletion kinetics and pharmacokinetic models to establish a physiological vitamin C renal threshold. This allowed us to define “vitamin C renal leak” as urinary vitamin C levels below the established minimal elimination threshold. The technology was tested and validated in multiple clinical studies involving more than five cohorts of healthy controls or those with chronic disease.

Commercial Applications

• Establishment of a commercial service to measure vitamin C renal leak in plasma and urine for diagnostic or management purposes of many conditions (to include but not be limited to diabetes and Fabry disease).
• Vitamin C renal leak may help detect and monitor renal damage in diabetes and other chronic conditions and potentially guide the timeline for protective medications such as ACE/ARBs.
• Vitamin C renal leak may identify patients who would benefit from alternative medications for managing conditions. For example, GLP-1 agonists or SGLT-2 inhibitors may more effectively protect cardiovascular disease patients with vitamin C leaks.
• Vitamin C loss may be a biomarker to indicate the need for earlier treatment of Fabry disease.
   

Competitive Advantages
Characterization of vitamin C renal leak may be used in the prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, or management of many diseases. For various acute or chronic medical conditions, vitamin C renal leak status may be the earliest indicator of underlying pathogenesis when compared to current laboratory measures such as creatinine or proteinuria. Vitamin C renal leak can also potentially be used to monitor disease progression (staging) and for positive responses or adverse reactions to therapeutic interventions (drugs or procedures). Additionally, knowledge of vitamin C renal leak status in individual patients or its prevalence in disease states may provide guidelines and recommendations for daily intake.

For further information on this technology and to access the licensing contact information, please view the abstract: Vitamin C Renal Leak as a Clinical Diagnostic Tool in the Detection, Monitoring, and Management of Acute and Chronic Diseases 

Licensing or Collaboration Opportunity for Automated Device for Mixing and Dispensing Samples on Cryo-Electron Microscopy Grids

Licensing or collaboration opportunity for an apparatus and method that provides precise control over liquid sample mixing and dispensing using acoustic frequencies, resulting in an improved dispensation of the mixture onto a cryo-electron microscopy grid. 

Cryo-Electron Microscopy (cryo-EM) is used to obtain high-resolution structural images of macromolecular structures. Current techniques to prepare cryo-EM grids are performed manually and require trial and error, resulting in a bottleneck in cryo-EM workflows. Researchers developed a device and method for time-resolved preparation of liquid samples from cryo-EM experiments. In particular, the mixing and dispensation of liquid samples is achieved by specific electrical signals that are transduced into specific acoustic frequencies to mix the liquid samples (low frequency) and then dispense the mixture (high frequency) in small (nanoliter) volumes onto a cryo-EM grid (Figure 1). The apparatus and method provides more precise control over liquid sample mixing and dispensing, and improved dispensation of the mixture onto the EM grid. Also, the improved quality of captured images of homogeneous macromolecular structures is achieved due to a more uniform mixing and dispensed sample on the EM grid. This allows electrons to be transmitted through the very thin liquid film in the holes

Commercial Applications

• Automation of cryo-EM experiments aimed at structure-based drug design by examining macromolecular structure and its interactions with ligands
• Kits with hardware and software components to setup robotic automation of cryo-EM sample preparation, dispensation, plunging and storage

Competitive Advantages

• Automated workflow eliminates the guesswork out of cryo-EM sample preparation.
• Increases sample prep success rate and decreases the need to screen repeated trials.
• Using acoustic-based, multiple-sample mixing enables homogeneous mixing and facilitates the observation of transient molecular interactions with high time resolution.
• Python code is available for command and control of a robot that manipulates the cryo-EM grid.

Prospective partners are being sought for the following: 

• Licensing to manufacture the device.
• Collaboration to improve prototype for commercialization.

Further information and the licensing contact can be found on the abstract: Apparatus for Cryogenic-Electron Microscopy Sample Preparation 

Licensing Opportunity for Regenerative Therapy for Cartilage Damage
 

Inventors at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) are seeking a licensee for two related inventions for a regenerative therapy for cartilage damage and a method to generate chondrocytes from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hIPSCs) and their use in repairing human injury and degenerative diseases. 

The first subject technology discloses a tissue engineering method for treating cartilage damage. Stem cells from bone marrow are attached to a novel scaffold, hyaluronic acid-coated fibrin microbeads, and transferred to a live host to form cartilage. The regenerated cartilage is stable and not hypertrophic, which has been problematic in the current regenerative methods.

Commercial Applications:

• A novel scaffold, hyaluronic acid-coated fibrin microbeads
• Cartilage repair

Competitive Advantages:

• Coating with hyaluronic acid makes the fibrin microbeads more stable for mature cartilage formation.
• The new hyaline cartilage is stable and hypertrophy-resistant.

Further information and licensing contact information can be found on the abstract: Regenerative Therapy for Cartilage Damage 

The second technology includes a method for differentiating human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) into stable chondrocytes, capable of producing cartilage, and their use in cartilage repair in human injury and degenerative diseases. In suspension culture, hiPSC aggregates demonstrate gene and protein expression patterns similar to articular cartilage. Transplantation of cells from the aggregates into a mouse/rat femoral articular cartilage defect leads to the formation of stable, hyaline-like cartilage that persists for up to 5 months in immunocompromised mice and rats, demonstrating that hiPSC could potentially be used to regenerate cartilage in humans with similar defects. A potential application includes the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA), a disease characterized by the permanent loss of articular cartilage that lines joint surfaces.

Potential commercial applications of in vivo long-term transplantation of hIPSC-derived chondrocytes can potentially be used to treat:

• Injuries: This technology could be used to treat cartilage damage caused by injuries such as sports injuries, falls, and car accidents.
• Overuse: This technology could be used to treat cartilage damage caused by overuse, such as in athletes and people who have physically demanding jobs.
• Diseases: This technology could be used to treat cartilage damage caused by diseases such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and avascular necrosis.

Competitive Advantages:

This technology has the potential to be used to repair a variety of sources of cartilage damage, including damage caused by injury, overuse, and disease. In addition, the method described here produces chondrocytes that are stable when transplanted in vivo, which can potentially effect long-term and significant healing.

Further information and licensing contact information can be found on the abstract: Method To Generate Chondrocytes from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (hIPSCs) and their use in Repairing Human Injury and Degenerative Diseases

Collaboration Opportunity for Hyaluronan Antagonists for Preventing and Treating Airway Diseases Such as Asthma and COPD

Airway diseases, such as Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), constitute a major health burden worldwide. It is estimated, for example, that nearly 15.0% of the adult population in the US are affected with such diseases, and the economic cost burden is over $23 billion annually. Unfortunately, the current options for treatment of such diseases are quite limited, consisting only of bronchodilators and inhaled steroids. The need for a novel and more effective class of therapeutics agents is imperative. The subject invention provides for a potentially more specific and effective treatment of airway diseases as compared with existing treatments. 

AHR (an exaggerated airway constriction in response to extrinsic triggers) is a major component of asthma, COPD, atopy, and airway injury due to inhalation exposures. NIEHS investigators have invented antagonists, including hyaluronan oligosaccharides (oHAs, Fig. A) and Heparosan (Fig. B), that inhibit hyaluronan signaling leading to the inhibition of airway inflammation and AHR. 

Potential Commercial Applications: 

• Treatment of chronic airway diseases such as, but not limited to, COPD, asthma, cystic fibrosis, obliterative bronchiolitis, diffuse panbronchiolitis, or cryptogenic organizing pneumonia.
• Treatment of acute airway diseases such as, but not limited to exercise-induced asthma, AHR, pollution-induced airway injury, chemical-induced airway injury.

Competitive Advantages:

• Targeted treatment of airway diseases by antagonizing hyaluronan signaling.
• Multiple modes of delivery, e.g., local, nebulizers, or inhalers.
• Can be used either therapeutically after, or prophylactically prior to, exposure to the trigger.

For further information on this technology and the licensing contact, please view the abstract: Antagonists of Hyaluronan Signaling for Treatment of Airway Diseases

Personalized Body Weight Management System Using Monitoring Devices and Mathematical Models of Metabolism Available for Licensing or Collaboration

Attempts to manage body weight are often unsuccessful or only temporary. This is, in part, due to antiquated dieting methods that attempt to address calorie consumption while ignoring metabolic and physical changes. Personalized and more comprehensive methods to track and manage body weight may be more effective. To that end, scientists at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) developed and launched the Body Weight Planner (http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/weight-management/body-weight-planner) that uses validated mathematical models of human metabolism to set weight management goals and predict individual body weight outcomes in the context of changing metabolic needs and calorie consumption.

More recently, developers at NIDDK have created a prototype personalized body weight management system that builds on the science behind Body Weight Planner with the addition of patented tracking and feedback technology. This new system is targeted for use by professionals and is designed to be integrated into a comprehensive healthcare or wellness program. Improvements enable users to more accurately plan, track, and update personalized weight management interventions by accounting for changes in human appetite, metabolism, and calorie expenditure over time. There are opportunities for the prototype to be combined with other devices to provide data input through wearables and at-home measurements. This system provides meaningful feedback through enhanced functionality and features to meet weight management goals.

Licensing/Collaboration contact can be found on the abstract. 

Reducing Entry of Neutrophils into the Lungs as a Treatment for Lung Inflammation and Injury

Co-development opportunity for a targeted therapy to treat respiratory diseases like asthma and COPD (among others) where there is an unmet need for targeted treatment options. NIEHS inventors have discovered that the epithelial membrane protein 2 (EMP2) promotes trafficking of blood neutrophils (PMNs) to the lungs of mice in response to the inhalation of bacteria (Emp2+/+, A.), to cause severe inflammation of the lungs (B.). PMN trafficking and Lung Inflammation is greatly reduced when EMP2 protein expression is knocked out (Emp2-/-, A. and C., arrows indicate inflamed areas), and Emp2-/- mice exhibited significantly increased survival (D.). Therefore, EMP2 is an excellent candidate for a targeted therapy to treat neutrophil-dependent lung disorders.

NIEHS is seeking a collaboration to research and develop biologics or other small molecules targeting EMP2 in the lungs to treat neutrophil-dependent disorders like: 

• Asthma and COPD
• Inflammation caused by Infection
• Acute Lung Injury
• Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Competitive Advantages:

• Emp2 Knock-Out Mouse to test therapeutic candidates in models of various neutrophildependent lung disorders.
• Targeting Emp2 can be translated into therapies for multiple causes of lung inflammation and injury, whether acute or chronic.

Further information on this technology and the licensing contact can be found on the abstract: Reducing Bloodstream Neutrophils as a Treatment for Lung Infection and Inflammation

Browse our 1,700+ technologies available for licensing or collaboration.