Innovation Days event showcases biomedical ingenuity
In 2019, Dallas leaders set out to create a robust life science ecosystem that would serve as a catalyst for the development of innovative technologies, medical devices, and treatment breakthroughs.
The city is an epicenter of big and bold ideas as evidenced by the recent Innovation Days competition whereby UT Southwestern physician-scientists and alumni pitched their brightest ideas or early-stage technologies to panels of judges.
The Shark Tank-style competition in which participants vied for financial prizes to support their projects was held in October at Pegasus Park, a redevelopment providing office space, labs, and collaboration opportunities among research institutions, investors, and businesses working in biotech research. About 30% of the 150 invited attendees came from out of state, said Brad Phelan, M.B.A., Assistant Vice President of Technology Commercialization and Business Development at UT Southwestern.
“This year’s event saw an almost 90% increase in attendees from out-of-state organizations, so the word is out,” Mr. Phelan said. “These were overwhelmingly investors who invest in early-stage life science companies. Their decision to join us is a testament to the quality of science coming out of UTSW’s campus and to the efforts the institution has made to prioritize advancing our research into the commercial market so that UTSW science can positively impact patient lives around the world.”
During the Innovation Days competition, nine finalists presented proposals ranging from a heart-lung machine that pulsates to a unique frame that keeps patients still and comfortable during radiation. Contestants competed in three categories: Medical Devices/Diagnostics, Digital Health, and Therapeutics.
Each contestant had five minutes to present their project in front of a panel of judges composed of business leaders, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists. Each candidate then had seven minutes to answer questions from the panel. Included among the 16 judges were Rima Chakrabarti, M.D., a UTSW alumna who is now a Partner at KdT Ventures; Xuhui Quan, M.B.A., Senior Vice President and Chief Data and Digital Officer at McKesson; and Jeff George, M.B.A., Managing Partner at Maytal Capital.
Winners in the Medical Devices/Diagnostics and the Digital Health categories received $50,000 each to continue developing their projects, while the winner in the Therapeutics Category received $100,000.
Prize money was provided by Lyda Hill Philanthropies, McKesson, the Polsinelli law firm, Argenx, Marguerite Steed Hoffman, UTSW’s Blackstone LaunchPad, and the UTSW Office for Technology Development.
The winners
Category: Therapeutics
Winner: Benjamin Greenberg, M.D., Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics and Vice Chair of Clinical and Transitional Research for the Department of Neurology
Proposal: Unlocking Patient-Derived Neuroprotective Antibodies for Therapeutic Use
Using current therapies, options are limited in slowing the progression of disabilities due to neuronal death in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. But improving the outlook for these patients could be achieved, said Dr. Greenberg, an internationally recognized expert in treating those with autoimmune disorders of the central nervous system.
Dr. Greenberg and his team, building on earlier discoveries from the lab of Nancy Monson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neurology and Immunology and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, have developed a therapeutic that could one day prevent disabilities caused by neuron death in patients with MS and other diseases.
“The monoclonal antibody we have discovered binds to a protein in neurons that helps neurons survive during stressful events,” Dr. Greenberg said. “Preventing the death of neurons in animal models of disease led to these animals avoiding the disability that otherwise occurred in subjects treated with controls and other antibodies.”
The protective antibody was identified using proprietary immunogenetic models and algorithms that rely on sequencing B cells from patients with MS.
“We are just harnessing the power of Mother Nature to figure out which antibodies are most neuroprotective or neurotherapeutic,” Dr. Greenberg said.
In studies, mice given the antibody TGM-010 stopped acquiring disabilities, while those given a control antibody continued to decline. The market for such a therapeutic is substantial, considering Alzheimer’s alone affects 6.5 million people in the United States, while therapies for MS annually have sales of $30 billion.
The prize money will allow Dr. Greenberg and his team to move forward in getting TGM-010 into clinical evaluation and hopefully to market to help reduce long-term disability in his and other patients.
“We were excited and humbled to win the top prize at Innovation Days,” Dr. Greenberg said. “The funds will be used to test our therapy in a broader number of disease models while we continue to raise funds to fully develop and test this therapy in humans.”
Category: Medical Devices/Diagnostics
Winner: Jason Park, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Pathology and in the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development
Proposal: Cancer Immunotherapy Toxicity Predictor
Immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, which is approved for use in most common cancers, represents one of the greatest advances in cancer therapy. However, in many cases these promising treatments can cause an immune-related adverse event, or irAE for short.
“While this class of drugs has made a significant clinical difference in patients’ lives, the toxicity is like no other,” Dr. Park said. “There is no reliable way to predict when these severe adverse reactions will occur.”
OncoSeer Diagnostics, a collaboration with UT Southwestern, is developing tests to help predict and diagnose the toxicities of cancer immunotherapy. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have transformed the treatment of many cancers, including lung, skin, bladder, kidney, breast, and other cancer types. With these promising treatments, patients may live longer, and more are cured, said Dr. Park, also Chief Laboratory Officer in a consulting role for OncoSeer and a member of the Simmons Cancer Center at UTSW.
ICIs, however, may also cause serious side effects. By stimulating the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells, these treatments sometimes cause an autoimmune attack on normal tissues and organs, resulting in irAEs.
Unlike the side effects of chemotherapy, immune-related adverse events may affect almost any part of the body, including the skin, joints, lungs, kidneys, liver, and other organs. Furthermore, these toxicities may occur at any point during treatment, sometimes even after therapy is stopped.
Although these drugs have now been used for more than a decade, adverse events remain an issue, Dr. Park said.
IrAEs are difficult to diagnose. It is also not known how best to monitor patients so that immune-related adverse events can be detected early on – before they cause serious health problems. Because of these concerns, immunotherapy has not reached its full potential. Some patients, such as those with autoimmune diseases like lupus, may not ever receive these drugs due to the possibility of serious toxicity. For similar reasons, others may receive only one ICI even though combinations of two drugs are sometimes more effective.
Originally developed by a team of UT Southwestern immunologists, pathologists, oncologists, and data scientists, the OncoSeer blood test provides key information on the risk of toxicity before treatment is started. This data can then be used to customize a patient’s treatment and follow-up. The multimarker blood test will be game changing for physicians who prescribe ICI therapy, Dr. Park said. Financial assistance from Innovation Days is critical for beginning clinical trials and testing this new type of blood test, Dr. Park said.
Category: Digital Health
Winner: Andrew Cox, Ph.D., UTSW alumnus
Proposal: Computational Immunology for Optimizing Immune Compatibility
A simple blood test could be lifesaving for cancer patients who receive a bone marrow transplant, according to Dr. Cox, co-founder of the biotech start-up ImmunoScope Inc. of Dallas and a recent graduate of the UT Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
“Our team at ImmunoScope has developed a novel technology aimed at improving outcomes from bone marrow transplantations,” he said. “Many patients undergoing this lifesaving procedure are at risk of developing a severe condition known as chronic graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). This happens when the donor’s T cells attack the patient’s healthy tissues. Beyond the emotional and physical toll on the patient, GvHD places a significant financial strain on health care, costing an estimated $350,000 per patient.”
Dr. Cox said his novel approach aims to better predict the risk of GvHD by analyzing the compatibility between the patient’s and the donor’s T cells, thereby improving donor selection processes for bone marrow transplantation and potentially reducing the incidence of GvHD.
“Our recent findings also suggest that we might have identified a new way to predict the patient’s risk of cancer recurrence based on a given donor. With our technology, we can potentially select donors whose T cells have the best shot at overcoming the patient’s cancer,” he said.
The preliminary data supporting this technology has already been published in a UTSW patent filing, and a recent peer-reviewed study in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer indicates it can successfully predict adverse outcomes for other cancer treatments, he continued, adding that the $50,000 prize will help pave the way for the company’s fundraising efforts.
“The Innovation Days prize isn’t just a validation of our work but a critical steppingstone,” Dr. Cox said. “The subsequent capital will empower us to embark on a proof-of-concept clinical study, further solidifying the potential and efficacy of our innovative approach.”
Photo highlights from Innovation Days
