News about Enterprise and Internationalisation
by Professor Richard Oreffo
Within the Faculty of Medicine we continue to grow and develop our enterprise and international portfolio with a number of notable achievements in the last few months.
Spin-out investment success: There was excellent news last month from spin-out company Karus Therapeutics. The leader in the development of innovative medicines for the treatment of inflammatory disease and cancer, announced the closing of its Series B investment, which included a first tranche of $7.6 million. The financing was led by new investors, SV Life Sciences, New Leaf Ventures, Novo A/S and International Biotechnology Trust, who were joined by existing investors, IP Group and a number of Angel investors.
The investment will be used to advance the company's proprietary PI3-Kinase p110-delta/beta and HDAC6 inhibitor programmes through early clinical trials in inflammation and cancer.
Simon Kerry, Chief Executive Officer of Karus, commented in a press release that the company’s development programmes show real potential as potent treatments for arthritis and other inflammatory diseases and as a new generation of targeted cancer therapies.
See
http://www.karustherapeutics.com/index.asp
Synairgen - Asthma patient treatment benefit: Details of a treatment (presentation of an immune system protein molecule, interferon beta, to prime an asthmatic’s body to challenge infections more effectively) that could help asthmatics fight infections that trigger 80 per cent of asthma attacks, were recently presented by Professor Ratko Djukanovic at the European Respiratory Society’s annual congress in Vienna. The treatment developed by the Faculty of Medicine spin-out company Synairgen, provides the first evidence that boosting asthmatics’ immune systems can help reduce the number of asthma attacks due to the common cold and other viral infections for the 5.4 million asthmatics in the UK.
See
https://www.southampton.ac.uk/medicine/news/2012/08/31_breathable_treatment_to_help_prevent_asthma_attacks.page
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Health Pharma University Industry Sector Theme (UIST) established: Following an award of £200K from the University of Southampton Central Research Allocation, the Health Pharma UIST came into existence in summer 2012 and appointed Dr Sally Nicholas as the Collaboration and Project Manager in September 2012. The Health Pharma UIST, a cross Faculty grouping chaired by Professor Richard Oreffo has a vision that includes within five years the University of Southampton will become the partner of choice for Pharma engaged in translational research, from bench to clinic, for research, enterprise, graduate recruitment and engagement
Art and Stem Cell exposure: An artist in residence has been taking an unusual view of our research at Southampton. Professor Kathleen Rogers is an internationally acclaimed bio-artist producing interdisciplinary projects that integrate art, biological science and technology. She is now producing work on the human immune system and phenomena linked to cell death. Kathleen’s work has been funded by an EPSRC ‘Pathways to Impact’ grant.
See
www.southampton.ac.uk/medicine/art
New CUHK-UoS Stem Cell laboratory link: Through an International Office award and CUHK funding/partnership and agreed memorandum of understanding signed by the Vice Chancellor - the Faculty of Medicine Centre for Human Development Stem Cells and Regeneration has linked with the Chinese University of Hong Kong to develop a joint stem cell research laboratory. The aim will be to provide travel fellowships for ECR and students to aid stem cell research across both institutions. CUHK is a well-respected research-led university and the second oldest in Hong Kong with Biomedical research one of its five focused areas of research. Future editions of this newsletter will detail developments and exchange outcomes.