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Glycosphingolipids are organizational building blocks of plasma membranes that participate in key cellular functions, such as signaling and cell-to-cell interactions. Glucosylceramide synthase - encoded by the Ugcg gene - controls the first committed step in the major pathway of glycosphingolipid synthesis. Global disruption of the Ugcg gene in mice is lethal during gastrulation. The inventors have established a Ugcg allele flanked by loxP sites (floxed).

This technology relates to compositions and methods for improving the growth characteristics of cells engineered to produce live viruses such as the Influenza virus. Featured is a method that uses the gene candidate, siat7e, or its expressed or inhibited products in Madin Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) cells. The gene expression modulates anchorage-dependence of the cell line thereby allowing scale-up on bioreactor platforms without the use of microcarrier beads and reducing production costs.

This invention offers technology to help treat certain brain diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's, and may lead to more effective and personalized treatments. P-glycoprotein transporter (P-gp) acts as a pump at the blood-brain barrier to exclude a wide range of xenobiotics (e.g., toxins, drugs, etc.) from the brain and is also expressed in a tumor in response to exposure to established/prospective chemotherapeutics (a phenomenon known as multidrug resistance; MDR).

The invention hereby offered for licensing is in the field of Immunotherapy and more specifically in therapy of autoimmune diseases such as Type I diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosis and immune mediated allergies such as asthma as well as in transplantation-related disorders, such as graft acceptance and graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD).

TTP has been implicated in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases through its role as a regulator of the transcripts encoding several pro-inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor alpha. However, it has been difficult to study endogenous TTP in man and other animals because it is expressed at very low levels in most cells and tissues, and because of the lack of mouse monoclonal antibodies directed at the human protein.

HCV has infected an estimated 3% of the world population in whom viral infection persists for more than two third of the cases, often resulting in life-threatening complications. The standard of care (pegylated interferon alpha-2 plus ribavirin) is efficient in only 50% of treated patients, costly and has numerous side effects. In addition, viral resistance to newly developed drugs -- targeting viral protease or RNA polymerase -- has been described, but no vaccine is yet available.

Aortic stenosis and aortic regurgitation are the most common types of aortic valvular diseases. Such diseased aortic valves in the body are traditionally replaced with valve prosthesis by an open surgical implantation. Available for licensing and commercial development is intellectual property covering stents for use with valve prostheses. As illustrated below, one possible embodiment of the invention includes a self-expandable stent with an elastic tubular latticework having radial and longitudinal direction.

This invention is directed to use of certain peptide analogs comprising multiple amphipathic helical domains that are able to promote cellular lipid efflux and stimulate lipoprotein lipase activity. As a result, administration of invention peptides lead to reduced incidences of hypertriglyceridemia without inducing toxicity. Existing peptides that stimulate efflux of lipids from cells exhibit unacceptably high toxicity. Invention peptides are superior to existing peptides and can also be used to treat or prevent a vast range of vascular diseases, and their dyslipidemic precursors.

Available for licensing and commercial development is a multilayered radio-frequency (RF) coil system for improving the transmit B1 field homogeneity for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at high field strengths. The current invention aims at manipulating the inhomogeneous profile of the transmit B1 field, which causes MR images to become less uniform as the magnetic field strength is increased, by utilizing an inner array of RF elements (e.g. surface coils) within and coupled to an outer transmit unit (e.g. a birdcage coil or other volume coil).

The retinoid-related orphan receptor gamma (RORgamma) is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily. NIH investigators used homologous recombination in embryonic stem cells to generate mice in which the RORgamma gene was disrupted. RORgamma deficient mice lack peripheral and mesenteric lymph nodes and Peyer's patches indicating that ROR expression is indispensable for lymph node organogenesis. In addition, RORgamma is required for the generation of Th17 cells which play a critical role in autoimmune disease.