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Medicine

Immunology innovations take centre stage at Future Worlds’ Pitch for Partnership event

Published: 6 July 2018
Future Worlds Panel
Immunology innovations take centre stage at Future Worlds’ Pitch for Partnership event

Scientists and researchers from Medicine pitched innovative and diverse solutions to some of society’s pressing healthcare challenges in front of a panel of global pharma companies at the recent Future Worlds’ Pitch for Partnership in Immunology event.

Five teams from the faculty and one from the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) were given three minutes to present their research to experts from Pfizer, MedImmune and AstraZeneca.

The event was very positive with talks of collaboration and investment now taking place. 

Salim Khakoo, Professor of Hepatology, spoke about Vaxinc, a new team that has developed a way to activate Natural Killer (NK) cells for cancer therapy, allowing them to produce a vaccine that will be more cost-effective and have wider reach than current products. This provoked great interest from the panel with Nick Clarke, Head of UK Academic Partnerships, External Science & Innovation at Pfizer, describing it as a “huge opportunity”.

Other projects that were presented were: 

·     The Trimunocor research team, who are developing a novel, patented technology to synthetically produce large quantities of natural anti-inflammatory surfactant protein D, an essential lung defence protein lacked by premature babies. Development of a successful product for preterm neonates could provide an effective route to the larger asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) markets, currently worth over £30 billion annually.

 

·     The James Lab at the new Centre for Cancer Immunology, which is investigating the use of small molecule aminopeptidase inhibitors to promote the protective anti-tumour Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte (CTL) response. These immunotherapies are an attractive therapeutic option for late stage cancer where treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery have been exhausted.

 

·     The Infection and Immunity research team who are researching into immune cell vascular interactions and using a variety of approaches to develop an in-vitro system as part of their investigations, initially in inflammation. There are also opportunities in cancer research where the endothelium, cells that line the interior surface of blood vessels, could also play a role that is potentially targetable.

 

·      The Asthma research team who are developing an effective treatment for severe asthma, which is a significant unmet clinical need. The team’s research surrounds the function of the asthma susceptibility gene ADAM33, which produces an enzyme that attaches to cells in the airway. When the enzyme loses its anchor to the cell surface, it can cause poorer lung function in people who have asthma. Their studies suggest that when ADAM33 is switched off, airway remodelling, twitchiness and inflammation will be reduced. The team are looking into targeting ADAM33 through multiple methods to determine new ways of treating asthma.

 

·      Jessica Teeling who is part of the CNS Inflammation research team within the University’s Optoelectronic Research Centre (ORC). Her team’s research focus is the role of systemic inflammation in dementia. Currently, no treatment is available to halt or slow down dementia and no biomarkers are available to predict disease progression. Thus, accurate biomarkers are highly desirable to monitor disease progression, to stratify patients, and to predict response rates to therapeutic intervention. Together with Collin Sones and Peijin He, she is applying microfluidic paper devices or ‘dipsticks’ to monitor systemic inflammation.

 

Future Worlds mentor Simon Kerry, who sat on the panel in his role as Operating Partner of Advent Life Sciences, said:  “This was a great opportunity that has highlighted some of the really top-class research that’s ongoing at the University of Southampton.”

John Holloway, Associate Dean Research in the Faculty of Medicine added: “This event was not only a success for the people pitching, who gave fantastic presentations and got to interact with industry, but also showcased to the wider University how easy and beneficial it can be to interact with industry. I hope that we’ve generated a spark in a few people to move forwards and take similar steps to bring their ideas to the commercial market.” 

 

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