A Novel Strategy to Produce 6-cys Proteins Based on Pfs230D1 Domain Fusions

The Plasmodium parasite has a complex lifecycle during human infection and in the mosquito vector. Most advanced malaria vaccine candidates can confer only partial, short-term protection in malaria-endemic areas. A means of breaking the transmission of malaria to subsequent individuals could prevent a significant amount of human disease.

The primary embodiments of this technology are novel compositions of matter that produce enhanced transmission-blocking responses over current transmission blocking vaccines:

Oral Iron-Chelator Therapy for Treating Developmental Stuttering

This technology discloses the use of small-molecule iron chelators—drugs that bind and remove excess iron—for the oral treatment of developmental stuttering in children and adults. Mouse models carrying human stuttering mutations show both elevated striatal iron and impaired vocalization; daily low-dose deferiprone reverses these speech-like deficits while normalizing brain-iron MRI signals.

Sodium Nitrite as a Repurposed Pharmaceutical Agent Wins LES Deals of Distinction Award

The 2009 award winner for this category is a group of licensing agreements for the development of sodium nitrite as a repurposed pharmaceutical agent potentially effective against a number of serious medical conditions. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), supported by four university collaborators, was able complete exclusive license agreements with Hope Pharmaceuticals (for infused delivery) and Aires Pharmaceuticals (for inhaled delivery) to develop new treatments for conditions not well-managed by existing therapies.

Zinbryta® for Treatment of Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis

The 2017 Deals of Distinction™ Award was presented to National Institutes of Health, (NIH) along with its corporate partners, AbbVie and Biogen, for a license agreement related to the development and launch of Zinbryta® for treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS)   The award, one of the most prestigious for technology transfer, was given to NIH and its partners at the Licensing Executives Society Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois.

NIH Wins Licensing Executive Society Deals of Distinction Award for WHO C-TAP Partnership

The NIH Technology Transfer Program has won the Licensing Executive Society’s Deals of Distinction award for 2022. The Deals of Distinction Award is given to an outstanding licensing deal from the past year. Steve Ferguson, Special Advisor at the NIH Office of Technology Transfer, recently attended the LES award ceremony to accept the award on NIH’s behalf. Continue reading to learn about this award-winning license agreement from Steve himself.

Dr. Ken Jacobson Wins E.B. Hershberg Award

The American Chemical Society (ACS) has awarded Kenneth Jacobson the E.B. Hershberg Award for Important Discoveries in Medicinally Active Substances. Jacobson is a Senior Investigator at the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Jacobson was selected for this award for his original and high-impact research in structure-based medicinal chemistry, including the discovery of G-protein receptor modulators in clinical trials.

Changing Lives in PASLI/APDS Patients, Disease Discovery and Treatment.

THE PROBLEM: APDS (activated PI3 kinase delta syndrome) — also known as PASLI (p110 delta-activating mutation causing senescent T cells, lymphadenopathy and immunodeficiency) disease — is a rare disorder that severely impairs the immune system’s ability to fight bacterial and viral infections, making patients susceptible to severe and recurrent infections, lymphoma, autoimmune diseases and other health issues. This disease is estimated to affect up to two people per million, and it can only be cured via bone marrow transplant.

COVID-19 Technologies Licensed Globally Through WHO Program Win LES Deals of Distinction Award

NIAID TTIPO’s extraordinary efforts in “COVID-19 Technologies Licensed Globally Through WHO Program” was recognized by the Licensing Executives Society (U.S.A. & Canada) in 2022 with a Deals of Distinction Award in the Industry-University-Government Interface Sector. This award acknowledged the collaborative efforts put forth by the WHO, Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) and the NIH for COVID-19 technologies licensed globally through the WHO program.

Avelumab, New Therapy for Metastatic Merkel Cell and Urothelial Carcinomas

Through a CRADA with EMD Serono, NCI played an instrumental role in developing and expediting regulatory approval of EMD Serono’s checkpoint inhibitor, avelumab. Avelumab received FDA approval in 2017, only four years after EMD Serono and NCI added the study of avelumab to their CRADA. This was a remarkably fast developmental and regulatory approval timeline.
NCI: 
• James Gulley, M.D., Ph.D., Branch Chief, Genitourinary Malignancies Branch, Center for 
Cancer Research (CCR)