Kylin Therapeutics Licenses pRNA IP from Purdue
Kylin Therapeutics said last week that it has obtained an exclusive license to RNA interference delivery technology from Purdue University.
The license agreement covers more than a dozen patent applications covering packaging RNA, or pRNA, which was invented by Peixuan Guo, former professor of molecular virology and biomedical engineering at Purdue.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Kylin’s lead pRNA-based therapeutic is being explored as a treatment for cancer. The company also said it will develop follow-on treatments for viral diseases such as AIDS.
Guo, currently a professor and director of the Nanomedicine Bionanotechnology Center at the University of Cincinnati, is a Kylin founder and a member of its scientific advisory board.
Kylin, based in West Lafayette, Ind., was formed in 2003 with seed financing from Indiana-based In-Vivo Ventures and Golden Pine Ventures.
UT-Arlington Spin-Out AeonClad Licenses Back Plasma Coating Tech
AeonClad Coatings, a University of Texas spin-out company, last week announced it has obtained an exclusive license from the University of Texas at Arlington for a plasma coating technology for medical and industrial applications.
AeonClad is an Emergent Technologies Fund IV portfolio company, and is headed by chief scientist Richard Timmons and managing director Tony Taylor.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The plasma deposition technology is a new method for coating nanoparticles and devices. Applications include improved biocompatibility of medical implants and enhanced functionality of coated particles for laboratory and industrial purification processes.
Timmons, who is also a professor of chemistry at UT-Arlington, will retain his post. Taylor also serves as senior vice president of business development for Emergent Technologies.
Emergent Technologies is a life sciences venture firm focused on selecting and funding early technology from universities for commercialization with industrial partners. Its Fund IV has been established to invest in technologies developed within the University of Texas system.
Millipore and Burnham Institute to Run Stem-Cell Workshops
Millipore has developed training workshops on human stem cell research with the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, the company said recently.
Millipore and Burnham will hold four- or five-day workshops at least once per quarter. The workshops will be conducted by a team of Millipore, Burnham Institute, and independent stem-cell specialists, Millipore said.
As sole sponsor of the workshops, Millipore will work with the Burnham Institute to develop, organize, and execute the events. The workshops will feature laboratory experiments and technical seminars.
The Burnham Institute will host the workshops at its campus in La Jolla, Calif. The first workshop is tentatively scheduled for September.
Interested parties will be able to register for the workshops and view syllabi and workshop information online beginning in August. Class size will initially be limited to nine participants per workshop. It will cost $1,500 to participate.
Panagene Licenses PNA Tech from Copenhagen Inventor Group
Panagene has licensed PNA monomers from the Copenhagen Inventor Group that will allow Panagene to synthesize, make, and sell peptide nucleic acids, the company said last week.
Panagene, based in South Korea, adds this license agreement to a previous one with CIG for patents for PNA custom synthesis.
Panagene estimated that it currently commands around 5 percent of the DNA/RNA synthesis market and said the new license will enable it to significantly increase this share.
PNAs are oligonucleotide analogues in which the standard sugar-phosphate backbone of DNA is substituted by a pseudo-peptide backbone. They were invented in 1991 by a group of scientists at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.