This technology is a treatment for obesity and its related health sequelae via the injection of metabolically active brown adipose microtissue (BAM).
Obesity has been linked to an increased risk for several diseases including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, osteoarthritis, and cancer. Current treatments for obesity induce weight loss by reducing caloric intake. However, it has been posed that humans naturally compensate for reduced energy intake by lowering metabolic rate, ultimately limiting the efficacy of such therapies. Other therapies for weight loss and type 2 diabetes (such as bariatric surgery and pharmaceuticals) have had limited success and exhibit numerous side effects and complications, highlighting a need for improved therapeutic options.
This technology involves creating BAM grafts from a patient’s own white adipose tissue, stem cells, or endothelial cells as a treatment for obesity. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) consists of brown-colored fat cells that have higher thermogenic potential than those of white adipose tissue (WAT). The engineered BAMs and BAT are injected into patients, where they are able to integrate with the vascular supply and burn calories stored and consumed by the patient, leading to weight loss. Harnessing BAT’s capacity for increasing energy consumption via thermogenesis provides a therapy that induces weight loss by increasing metabolic rate, rather than limiting absorption of calories and nutrients. Therefore, increasing BAT levels in obese patients to similar levels as those of lean individuals provides the same benefits for reducing body mass and metabolic health in obese individuals, but with enhanced safety and efficacy compared to drugs or bariatric surgery.
Successful vascular integration of BAM grafts has been validated in mice.
Patent Pending (US 20170191035)
Patent Pending (US 20150202234)
IR CU16198, CU13032
Licensing Contact: Beth Kauderer