{"id":26900,"date":"2015-05-04T16:00:38","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T20:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=26900"},"modified":"2016-06-11T12:32:37","modified_gmt":"2016-06-11T16:32:37","slug":"cancer-therapy-spin-off-gets-2m-small-business-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=26900","title":{"rendered":"Cancer Therapy Spin-Off Gets $2M Small Business Grant"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kate<\/a>
Kate Rittenhouse-Olson (Douglas Levere, University at Buffalo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

4 May 2015. A three year-old company started by a University at Buffalo<\/a> microbiologist received a $2 million grant to develop an antibody into a clinical treatment for breast and other types of cancer. For-Robin<\/a> in Williamsville, New York, received the two-year award<\/a> from National Cancer Institute, part of National Institutes of Health, under the agency’s Small Business Technology Transfer program.<\/p>\n

For-Robin was founded in 2012 by Kate Rittenhouse-Olson<\/a>, a microbiology professor at Buffalo, to bring to market her research on carbohydrate antigens, considered to play a key role in the growth and spread of cancer cells, and antibodies aimed specifically to combat them. The company is named for Rittenhouse-Olson’s sister<\/a>, who died of breast cancer in 1986 at age 31, which makes the enterprise much more than a commercial enterprise to its founder.<\/p>\n

The antigen targeted by the company is Thomsen-Friedenreich glycoantigen<\/a>, absent or masked by carbohydrates in normal tissue, but present in several human cancers, including breast, colon, bladder, and prostate. Rittenhouse-Olson and For-Robin aim to develop an antibody called JAA-F11<\/a>, designed to bind on and stop the growth of human cancer cells with Thomsen-Friedenreich antigens on their surface.<\/p>\n

Rittenhouse-Olson already developed a version of JAA-F11 for tests with mice<\/a> showing the antibody has a high affinity for and binds to Thomsen-Friedenreich antigens, which stops the metastasis, or spread, of cancer to other parts of the body. Studies show mice implanted with breast tumors and injected twice weekly with JAA-F11 experience less metastasis of their cancer than similar mice not receiving JAA-F11. Mice injected with JAA-F11 also live longer than those not receiving the antibody.<\/p>\n

Rittenhouse-Olson received a patent<\/a> for the JAA-F11 technology in 2008, assigned to the university. The National Cancer Institute grant funds For-Robin to further develop JAA-F11 into a human antibody that can qualify for FDA approval to test in clinical trials. A “humanized” form of the JAA-F11 will be engineered to prevent rejection by the body’s immune system.<\/p>\n

The grant calls for the company to design two forms of the therapy: (1) as a direct immunotherapy agent and (2) as an antibody drug conjugate absorbed into the cancer cell, where the cancer-killing chemicals are then released. Antibody drug conjugates<\/a> combine highly targeted antibodies with chemotherapy drugs, with the potential for fewer side effects than traditional chemotherapy.<\/p>\n

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