Lead Inventor: Dattananda S. Chelur,
Martin Chalfie, Ph.D.
Cancer treatment allows apoptotic pathway to be turned on and off:
While proper cellular apoptosis (cell death) is absolutely critical in the prevention of many forms of cancer, control and manipulation of this ubiquitous apoptotic pathway as a developing therapeutic strategy in cancer patients is hampered by leaky, non-specific, and potentially toxic side-effects.
Initiating cell death in cancer cells with controlled caspasen generation :
This invention offers a tightly controlled method to induce apoptosis in specific cells at a specific time by generating an active caspase (a key apoptotic-inducing protein) only when two separate promoters are each induced. The apoptotic pathway can then be turned off in a similarly specific manner by expression of a caspase-neutralizing protein controlled by a third promoter.
Applications:
• Cancer ablation therapy
• Research tool
o High throughput screening for novel anti-apoptotic cellular proteins or compounds
o Generation of animal clones ablated for a specific cell type or tissue
o Temporal ablation of specific cells to study their role in development and/or behavior
Advantages:
• Provides a general method for the reconstitution of all known caspases
o This allows for a broad selectable spectrum of apoptotic pathway targets
• High degree of apoptotic specificity in targeting a specific cell type
• Tight regulation and expression of apoptotic induction at a specific time point
• The three above points together provide a highly accurate, more specific and less ""leaky"" apoptosis-inducing mechanism
Patent Status: Patent Pending (
US 20070026428)
Licensing Status: Available for Licensing and Sponsored Research Support