Purdue licenses Low’s latest technology with revamped strategy
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In the steady stream of commercially successful innovations to emerge from the lab of Purdue University’s Dr. Philip Low, a newly licensed technology takes aim at improving MRIs to image the most aggressive form of brain cancer.
Low’s extraordinary record of success—seven companies, including one acquired for $2 billion—has helped pave the way for technology commercialization at Purdue. University leaders say Low’s latest license agreement is building momentum for an improved strategy that streamlines and strengthens commercialization and startup growth.
Low says a major area of emphasis in the oncology research community is improving imaging methods, so doctors can better see the cancerous tissue and fully remove it. Because it’s incredibly expensive to develop each new imaging agent, “it’d be useful to find one that can image virtually all cancers,” says Low, who is Purdue’s Presidential Scholar for Drug Discovery.
“We pondered how we might be able to develop a targeted imaging agent that would accumulate almost exclusively in cancerous lesions and avoid any uptake in healthy tissues,” says Low.
Low has world-renowned expertise in developing targeting agents, many of which are the underpinnings of his seven successful companies. This latest discovery unleashes the power of Fibroblast Activation Protein (FAP), which Low patented through the Purdue Research Foundation.
“Fibroblasts infiltrate all solid tumors. We found a protein on cancer-associated fibroblasts that we can use for targeted uptake of an MRI contrast agent,” says Low. “We make this MRI contrast agent and then [alter] it with a homing molecule that transports any attached cargo specifically to the cancer associated fibroblasts, so that the MRI contrast agent will specifically concentrate in solid tumors. When the patient is examined under the MRI, the tissues that light up will be malignant, or cancer tissues.”
Because fibroblasts are “abundantly present in all solid tumors,” says Low, the same imaging agent could be used in a variety of cancers. However, each indication needs regulatory approval, and an Australian biotech company wants to use Low’s discovery to image glioblastoma, the most aggressive kind of brain tumor in which patients survive only 15 months on average.
Ferronova, which Low says is “at the forefront of developing some of newest and most sensitive MRI contrast agents,” licensed the Purdue discovery to improve MRIs for glioblastoma, which is known for having complex tendrils that spread octopus-like in the brain.
Low says, although it’s occurring faster at Purdue than most institutions, there’s still “a certain amount of awakening” needed among academics to consider the commercial potential of their discoveries.
Purdue Innovates Senior Vice President Dr. Brooke Beier says the recent licensing agreement is “exactly the type of partnership we want to occur between our inventors, Purdue Innovates and our commercialization partners.” The licensing agreement is among the first under the university’s revamped commercialization structure called Purdue Innovates, which launched just months ago.
Beier says the mission of Purdue Innovates is to “streamline and strengthen” the commercialization and startup ecosystem at Purdue. Released just days ago, the National Academy of Inventors’ Top 100 U.S. Universities Granted U.S. Utility Patents ranked Purdue fourth in the nation, climbing two spots higher from the previous year.
In addition to patents and licensing agreements like Low’s most recent technology, Purdue Innovates aims to bring a new level of cohesiveness for startups.
“[Purdue Innovates] is a completely new shift; instead of focusing on the launch of startups, we’re really focused on getting them to Series A and beyond,” says Beier. “In terms of the number of startups coming out of Purdue, we’re one of the best in the country from a university perspective. We want to build off that momentum of launching these companies, so now we’re taking the field a little differently to make sure those companies are…getting those products to market or to IPO exit.”
Beier explains how the newly formed Purdue Incubator helps de-risk technologies for the marketplace.
As one of Purdue’s most prominent serial entrepreneurs, Low—now nearing his 50th anniversary at the university—has helped lead a transformation at the university. From administration strongly discouraging him several decades ago when he wanted to start his first company (Endocyte, which ultimately sold for $2 billion), to now giving Purdue entrepreneurs one of the best toolboxes in the country, Low says it’s “important to keep this momentum going.”
“It’s nice to continue this pattern of Purdue technology being developed and licensed out to companies that have the knowledge and capability to commercialize it. It’s a win-win situation for everybody,” says Low. “I hope Purdue continues to produce good technology that attracts the attention of the rest of the world.”