, main research commercialisation company, announced today that it has facilitated a strategic research collaboration agreement with in Australia, one of the Janssen pharmaceutical companies, to develop a promising treatment for a devastating immunological disease that affects millions of people around the world.
Under the agreement, Dendright Pty Ltd will receive an upfront seed grant to fund pre-clinical development of its treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Dendright remains wholly owned by UniQuest. No other terms of the deal were disclosed.
The seed grant will help and her team at the pursue a new treatment for RA, which may also apply to other autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis.
In 2011, Professor Thomas was a plenary speaker at the prestigious in Chicago and a finalist in the Health category of the for her research towards a vaccine for RA.
RA is caused by immune system dysfunction and affects millions of people worldwide, destroying joints and causing cardiovascular complications that can reduce life spans by 10 years. Professor Thomas鈥� innovation targets the underlying cause of the disease.
UniQuest Managing Director, , said the Dendright and Janssen collaboration represents another exciting example of Australian university researchers and international industry leaders combining resources and scientific expertise towards finding a solution for a global health problem.
鈥淯niQuest has worked closely with Professor Thomas to protect and package the value of the intellectual property surrounding her discoveries into a commercial opportunity with significant clinical and market potential, 鈥� Mr Henderson said.
鈥淭he innovation has many developmental stages yet to pass before it might result in a therapeutic product on the market. However, this funding and relationship milestone will support further research and the product optimisation required to prepare it for clinical trials.鈥�
Dendright Pty Ltd was established in 2005 and assisted by grants from the Queensland Government鈥檚 Innovation Start-up Scheme and the Australian Government鈥檚 Biotechnology Innovation Fund so that Professor Thomas and her team could focus on finding a way for the body鈥檚 own immune system to 鈥渟ilence鈥� the cells that cause autoimmune diseases. Professor Thomas鈥� research at the 国产探花 Diamantina Institute has also been supported by , a peak community organisation.
Professor Thomas said the strategic research collaboration and seed grant from Janssen provided more than just financial backing to her team.
鈥淲e are delighted to be collaborating with Janssen. It means we can tap into their scientific expertise, which will add another dimension to our clinical research, to Dendright鈥檚 product development program and to the knowledge we can impart to students working with us at the 国产探花 Diamantina Institute,鈥� Professor Thomas said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 rewarding on many levels to have an industry partner join us on this journey.鈥�
Media enquiries: Leanne Wyvill +61 7 3365 4037, 0409 767 199, l.wyvill@uniquest.com.au or
Carolyn Davy +61 7 3176 6623, 0431 658 934 or c.davy@uq.edu.au
About UniQuest Pty Limited (www.uniquest.com.au)
Established by The University of Queensland in 1984, is widely recognised as one of Australia鈥檚 largest and most successful university commercialisation groups, benchmarking in the top tier of technology transfer worldwide. From an intellectual property portfolio of 1,500+ patents it has created over 60 companies, and since 2000 UniQuest and its start-ups have raised more than $400 million to take university technologies to market. Annual sales of products using 国产探花 technology and licensed by UniQuest are running at $3 billion. UniQuest now commercialises innovations developed at The University of Queensland and its commercialisation partner institutions: the University of Wollongong, University of Technology Sydney, James Cook University, University of Tasmania, Mater Medical Research Institute, and Queensland Health. UniQuest also provides access to an expansive and exclusive network of independent academics to tailor a consulting or project R&D solution to meet the diverse needs of industry and government, facilitating some 500 consulting, expert opinion, testing, and contract research services each year. UniQuest is also a leading Australasian provider of international development assistance recognised for excellence in technical leadership, management and research. Working with agencies such as AusAID, NZAID, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, UniQuest has developed and implemented more than 400 projects in 46 countries throughout the Pacific, South-East Asia, the Indian sub-continent and Africa.
About Dendright Pty Ltd (www.uniquest.com.au/portfolio/dendright-pty-ltd)
Dendright is a private Australian biotech company, based in Brisbane, Queensland, developing a platform vaccine technology based on dendritic cells to treat autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 diabetes. The technology aims to utilise the body鈥檚 own immune system to 鈥渟ilence鈥� the T cells that cause these severe chronic diseases. The technology may also be applicable to symptoms associated with allergy, transplantation, and graft rejection. The company鈥檚 sole shareholder is UniQuest Pty Limited.
About the Dendright vaccine technology
Dendright鈥檚 current research focuses on the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a systemic disorder that affects the synovial tissue of joints leading to cartilage and bone erosion and subsequent joint destruction. Dendritic cells (DCs) play an important role in immune responses by processing and presenting antigen to naive T cells. Dendright鈥檚 research has shown that the ability of DCs to induce T cell activation or tolerance can be controlled by manipulation of NFkB/RelB function. Dendright is developing a novel liposome product for treating RA which encapsulates an NFkB inhibitor and antigen. Studies have demonstrated that these liposomes can be taken up by DCs and are able to prevent and suppress a previously primed immune response in animal models. Dendright鈥檚 platform technology has application in the treatment of RA, arthritis and other diseases of the immune system where tolerance is broken, including autoimmune disease (e.g. type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis), allergy, transplantation and graft rejection. It targets the underlying cause of the disease, rather than the symptoms, potentially avoiding common side effects of existing immunosuppressant drug therapies, such as infection susceptibility. Patent applications are in National Phase entry in the US, Europe, Australia, Canada, Japan, China, and India.
