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| Recently Issued U.S. Patents |
Method for increasing bone mass (Elizabeth Moran, Stephen Flowers) US Patent # 8,415,316 The present invention features methods for promoting the differentiation of osteoblast bone forming cells to a mineralization phenotype and increasing bone mass using inhibitors of Brahma. Subjects benefiting from such treatment may have non-union fractures, osteopenia or osteoporosis, osteosarcoma, or a bone graft or bone fusion or orthopedic and dental implants, osteolytic bone disease, skeletal defects or deficiencies or periodontal disease.
Glutamate-enhanced cell-penetrating peptides and methods of using same
(Beverly Barton, Dan Lewis, Robert Donnelly, Ali Husain, Dimitrios Barlos, Sheraz Riaz) US Patent # 8,389,481 Disclosed herein are novel glutamate-enhanced cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) for use as delivery vehicles to mediate intracellular uptake of therapeutic payloads and methods of using the same.
Salivary bioassay for early detection of bone loss (Daniel Fine, David Furgang) US Patent # 8,389,015 The present invention is directed to methods to detect and diagnose osteoporosis and periodontal disease using salivary biomarkers.
Method of reversing carboplatin resistance by inhibition of HGFIN (Pranela Rameshwar) US Patent # 8,383,806 The present invention discloses the cloning of a new cDNA, HGFIN, from stimulated bone marrow stromal cells that was retrieved with a probe specific for the neurokinin-1 (NK-1) receptor. The novel gene, HGFIN, encodes a protein receptor that is involved in the regulation of hematopoietic proliferation and differentiation. HGFIN is implicated in the treatment of hyperproliferative disorders, particularly bone and breast cancer, because it acts to suppress the proliferating cells.
Assay for the measurement of IGF type 1 receptor and insulin receptor expression (Teresa Wood, Anne Rowzee) US Patent # 8,377,655 This invention relates to a quantitative PCR assay that differentiates between IR-A, IR-B and IGF-IR mRNAs and compares expression of the three receptors on the same scale.
Telomerase reverse transcriptase variant (Janine Santos) US Patent # 8,362,209 The present invention relates to nucleic and amino acid sequences of a novel variant of the telomerase reverse transcriptase. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a novel variant of human telomerase reverse transcriptase, which displays properties distinct from those of wildtype telomerase reverse transcriptase, and methods of use thereof.
eEF2K assays for identifying compounds that inhibit eEF2K activity (Alexey Ryazanov, Benjamin Turk) US Patent # 8,349,576
Assays for identifying novel compounds for inhibiting eEF2 kinase and consequence peptides employed therein.
Pharmacologically-active vanilloid carbamates
(Jeffrey Laskin, Diane Heck, Carl Jeffrey Lacey, Erik Aponte, Mou-Tuan Huang, Ned Heindel) US Patent # 8,343,971 This application relates to pharmacologically-active vanilloid compounds which are useful for the treatment of various anti-inflammatory states characterized by inhibition of FAAH, such as, Alzheimer's dementia, Parkinson's disease, depression, pain, rheumatoid arthritis, pathophysiology of mood disorders, multiple sclerosis, and inflammation, or antagonism of TRPV1, such as, for example, Huntington's disease, hypertension, arthritis, allergic airway inflammation, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and neuropathic pain.
Amniopunch and uses thereof (Dale Woodbury, Akiva Marcus) US Patent # 8,318,413 A tissue, such as an amniotic or chorionic membrane, harvesting device that integrates a system facilitating subsequent storage of tissue samples. The device cuts a sample of the target tissue and automatically deposits the sample in a storage vessel. A method of collecting and storing a sample from a target tissue using a tissue harvesting device. A kit for collecting and storing samples of the target tissue.
For additional information on any of the above issued patents, please contact the Office of Technology Transfer and Business Development at OTTBD@umdnj.edu.
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News Flashes
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A Healthy Venture in New Jersey
New Jersey Health Foundation and UMDNJ have developed a rare venture model to commercialize university intellectual property. For more information click here.
Foundation Venture Capital Group Invests In Start-Up Working to Reduce Side Effects of Parkinson's Treatment
MentiNova, Inc., co--founded by Dr. M. Maral Mouradian , the William Dow Lovett Professor of Neurology and Director of the Center for Neurodegenerative and Neuroimmunologic Diseases at the UMDNJ-RWJMS, is exploring an oral medication that could reduce uncontrollable, often chaotic movements in patients with Parkinson's Disease being treated with L-Dopa. Foundation Venture Capital Group (FVCG), a New Jersey Health Foundation affiliate, has committed up to $500,000 to advance this research and development. For more information click here.
New Jersey Health Foundation Awards First Two Innovation Stage Funding Grants
Dr. Tomer Davidov and Dr. William C. Gause of UMDNJ are the first two recipients of grants from New Jersey Health Foundation's Innovation Stage Funding Program to advance their medical research that could eventually be commercialized for consumer benefit. For more information click here.
Biosearch Technologies, UMDNJ Stellaris® Probe Alliance
Biosearch Technologies, Inc. has acquired exclusive worldwide rights to continuing Stellaris® RNA FISH based inventions from UMDNJ. For more information click here.
Antibodies and animal models?
The UMDNJ Office of Technology Transfer and Business Development is currently organizing a list of antibodies and animal models available for licensing to various companies that have expressed interest. If you have any antibodies or animals models that you would be interested in licensing, please contact the OTTBD (OTTBD@umdnj.edu) to request additional information and to fill out an intake form.
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Technology Spotlight:
Improved growth matrices for stem cell propagation in vitro and in tissue regeneration
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 | | Steven Levison, PhD Professor, Department of Neurology and NeurosciencesUMDNJ-NJMS |
Stem cell research has become one of the most rapidly growing areas of biomedical innovation in the past two decades. Tremendous efforts and funding have been invested into understanding stem cell biology with hopes for breakthroughs in a variety of therapeutic areas. Indeed, tissue engineering using stem cells is increasingly being employed to repair damaged tissues in diverse biological systems. However, additional research and optimization is required for the field of CNS repair.
Dr. Steven Levison, PhD, Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosciences working with Frances Calderon, Chirag Gandhi and Nolan Skop at UMDNJ-NJMS and with Cheul Cho at NJIT have developed an improved growth matrix for culturing stem cells. This new scaffold has stably immobilized critical growth factors/peptides within the matrix. As a result, the optimized matrix supports superior proliferation, stemness and multipotency of neural stem cells, while significantly reducing the frequency of feeding the cells from daily media changes to once after 3 days after plating. Moreover, the inventors have demonstrated that the present scaffold can be fabricated into a 3-D delivery vehicle, to promote the delivery of stem cells and growth factors to stimulate regeneration of nervous tissue after brain injuries.
Dr. Levison commented, "Keeping stem cells undifferentiated is a quite challenging because without the proper signals they diversify into more restricted progenitors. The multifunctional growth matrix that we've engineered recapitulates many properties of the niches that normally harbor them. Accordingly, we're quite excited about the potential that this scaffold has both for propagating stem cells in vitro and for delivering stem cells for cell replacement after CNS injury."
For more information on this technology and related partnership opportunities, contact the UMDNJ Office of Technology Transfer and Business Development: OTTBD@umdnj.edu.
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Changes to U.S. Patent Law: What Researchers Need to Know
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By Elysa B. Goldberg, PhD, Esq
goldbeeb@umdnj.edu
America Invents Act: First-Inventor-To-File (FITF)
The America Invents Act (AIA) became law on September 16, 2011 to strengthen and modernize the United States patent system. A hallmark provision of the AIA is the conversion of the United States to a first-inventor-to-file (FITF) system from a first-to-invent system. The FITF provisions became effective on March 16, 2013. The following example distinguishes these two systems. Until March 15, 2013, if independent Inventor A conceived and diligently reduced his invention to practice before independent Inventor B, Inventor A would be eligible to claim patent rights. In fact, Inventor A would be able to claim patent rights even if Inventor B filed a patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) before Inventor A. However, using the same example, the newly implemented FITF system would instead side with Inventor B. The FITF system intends to provide incentive to inventors to more quickly disclose inventions to the USPTO. Thus, this FITF system seeks to spur innovation.
It will take many years to completely transition from the first-to-invent system to the FITF system. The first-to-invent provisions will continue applying to all applications with an effective filing date before March 16, 2013, while all applications having an effective filing date on or after March 16, 2013 are subject to the FITF provisions. For example, if a provisional patent application has an effective filing date on March 15, 2013 and is converted to a non-provisional application, e.g. on March 15, 2014, the claims will be subject to the first-to-invent provisions. Therefore, it is important to establish a strategic plan while developing an active patent portfolio.
Only Inventors are Eligible for a U.S. Patent
United States patent law requires that the inventor(s) must apply for a patent and that the inventors must be correctly named. Otherwise, an issued patent with incorrect inventorship may be invalid. To be an inventor, one must contribute to the conception of the invention. Our office has been receiving inquiries regarding what would happen if an invention is copied and an application in connection with this invention is filed at the USPTO by someone other than the true inventor(s), effectively filing first. This scenario is not a concern. In accordance with statutory patent law, only inventors are entitled to a United States patent.
Inventors: Your Next Steps
It is clear from the existing UMDNJ patent and license portfolio that the UMDNJ faculty members are at the leading edge of research and conceive new innovations every day. To best preserve possible future patent rights, please disclose your inventions to our office prior to any public disclosure. It is critical that UMDNJ researchers and employees disclose inventions to the Office of Technology Transfer and Business Development (OTTBD) in a timely manner so that the OTTBD has time to assess a technology and move forward. Some examples of public disclosures are abstracts, posters, seminars and published manuscripts. By reaching out to our office, we will take the steps necessary to preserve future patent rights. We are always happy to answer your questions and provide guidance, so please contact us at ipdocket@umdnj.edu.
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Startup Company Highlight:
Transdent Therapeutics, Inc.
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 | | Dr. Kenneth Markowitz, DDS, MSD |
Transdent Therapeutics, Inc is a company based on research from Dr. Kenneth Markowitz, DDS, MSD of UMDNJ NJ Dental School Department of Oral Biology, aimed at effectively developing breakthrough technologies to manage dental pain. Despite significant advances in the field of dental pain, post-restorative sensitivity still remains a widespread concern. Patient surveys indicate that approximately 50% of patients report sensitivity following a restorative procedure. However, there are currently no products available on the market that provide timely relief.
Transdent Therapeutics has developed a novel, patent pending drug delivery system that delivers an anti-inflammatory, analgesic drug to the dental pulp in order to quickly and effectively reduce inflammation and pain. Dr. Markowitz and colleagues have invented PHARMADENT™, a site-specific drug delivery system, and DENTROFEN™, which encompasses the microparticles that contain the selected drug and bind directly to the dentin. This system allows for local drug delivery at the time of the procedure thus immediately blunting the inflammatory response at the time of injury.
Transdent Therapeutics is currently looking to align with strategic partners and raise capital to finance materials selection and initiate preclinical studies. For more information on Transdent Therapeutics, contact the UMDNJ Office of Technology Transfer and Business Development at OTTBD@umdnj.edu.
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| Recent License Agreements and Amendments |
Exclusive Option Agreement
covering a formulation and drug delivery technology.
Two Non-Exclusive License Agreements
covering Molecular Beacons technology.
Exclusive License Agreement
to Biosearch Technologies covering Stellaris Probes technology.
Exclusive License Agreement
to a UMDNJ spin-off company covering technology that may be beneficial to Parkinson's patients.
Exclusive License Agreement
to a small biotechnology company covering formulation and drug delivery technology.
Exclusive License Agreement
to a UMDNJ spin-off company.
Eight Amendments to Exclusive and Non-Exclusive License Agreements
to various technologies developed by UMDNJ researchers.
Exclusive License Agreement
to a UMDNJ spin-off company developing various methods useful for personalized medicine.
License Agreements
to Transdent Therapeutics to develop products aimed at management of dental pain.
Four non-exclusive license agreements
to UMDNJ hybridomas and polyclonal antibodies.
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Upcoming Events
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NJTC/Rutgers University Entrepreneur Bootcamp
Tuesday April 23: 8:00am - 2:00pm
Rutgers University
Busch Campus Center
604 Bartholomew Rd
Piscataway, NJ
For more information: click here
Rutgers Day
Saturday April 27: 10am-4pm
Meet the Rutgers Office of Technology Commercialization at Rutgers Day. Other Rutgers Day activities will include interactive demonstrations, vibrant stage performances, and an array of food choices on every campus. For more information: click here
QED Proof-of-Concept Funding Program
Tuesday May 7: 11:00am
CoRE Building
7th Floor Board Room (#701)
Piscataway, NJ
Information session on a unique program offering investigators the chance to become directly involved in the entrepreneurial aspects of technology development.
Find Funding in Your Freezer and Move Science Forward: In The Investigator's Annexe
Thursday, May 9th: 3:30pm
Research Tower, Room V10 Piscataway, NJ
Find out how faculty can relieve themselves of much of the burden of MTAs and earn additional funding by offering reagents (antibodies and other research tools) for sale. For more information and to RSVP: Raesu@umdnj.edu
Diagnostics and Personalized Medicine Innovation Summit
Thursday, June 6: 8:30am - 4:30pm
Sanofi
55 Corporate Drive
Bridgewater, NJ 07827
For more information: click here
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UMDNJ Office of Technology Transfer and Business Development
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 From top left clockwise: Christopher Izzo, Anya Nikiforova, Cherise Kent, Sue Dolci, Norell Hadzimichalis, Tania Litvin-Vechnyak, Laura Schepps, Vince Smeraglia, Elysa Goldberg (Not shown: Robert Bzdek, Lilly Cohen, Mona Daniels-Riley, Susan Rae)
For suggestions on future newsletter content, including upcoming events, news flashes, and articles please email OTTBD@umdnj.edu
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