Main Menu

The National Cancer Institute is seeking parties interested in licensing human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that bind to death receptor 4 ("DR4").

The National Cancer Institute's Protein Expression Laboratory seeks parties interested in licensing the novel delivery of RNA to mammalian cells using virus-like particles.

Current treatments for cancer and viral infection are limited remedies that often suppress cell or viral replication rather than eliminate diseased cells entirely from the body. A further limitation is that these therapies often compromise healthy cells as well, leaving problems of recurrence and side effects.

Researchers at developed a novel therapeutic nanoparticle (NP) system harboring therapeutic small siRNA that can significantly enhance effectiveness and specificity of treatments by killing diseased cells.

Current methods to deliver proteins into cells (e.g., using retrovirus, DNA transfection, protein transduction, microinjection, complexing the protein with lipids, etc.) have many shortcomings, such as lack of target specificity toxicity, or unwanted random integration into the host chromosome.  Protein transduction is an emerging technology for delivering proteins into cells by exploiting the ability of certain proteins to penetrate the cell membrane.  However, the majority of the proteins delivered by this means are usually trapped and subsequently degraded in the endosomes-lyso

It is well known that overactive Ras signaling is linked to many forms of cancer, and despite intensive efforts worldwide to develop effective inhibitors of Ras, to date there is no anti-Ras inhibitor in clinical use.

T cell receptors (TCRs) are proteins that recognize antigens in the context of infected or transformed cells and activate T cells to mediate an immune response and destroy abnormal cells. TCRs consist of two domains, one variable domain that recognizes the antigen and one constant region that helps the TCR anchor to the membrane and transmit recognition signals by interacting with other proteins. When a TCR is stimulated by an antigen, such as a tumor antigen, some signaling pathways activated in the cell lead to the production of cytokines, which mediate the immune response.

Available for licensing from the Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Genetics of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is a novel gene signature of thirty-seven drug-responsive genes that links changes in gene expression to the clinically desirable outcome of improved overall survival. Expression of these genes has been linked to prognosis in several cancers, including, but not limited to: multiple myeloma, melanoma, and lung and breast cancers.

Griffithsin (GRFT) is a lectin with potent antiviral properties that is capable of preventing and treating infections caused by a number of enveloped viruses (including HIV, SARS, HCV, HSV, and Japanese encephalitis) and is currently in clinical development as an anti-HIV microbicide. In addition to its broad antiviral activity, GRFT is stable at high temperature and at a broad pH range, displays low toxicity and immunogenicity, and is amenable to large-scale manufacturing.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common cancer in children with approximately 3,250 new cases occurring per year in the United States. About 20% of cases are refractory to current treatment protocols and there is a desperate need for targeted therapies that do not result in adverse side effects such as cognitive impairment. 

This technology from the NCI Molecular Imaging Program relates to a Zirconium-89 (89Zr)-oxine complex for cell labeling, tracking of labeled cells by whole-body positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging, and associated methods. A long half-life of 89Zr (78.4 hours), high sensitivity of PET, and absence of background signal in the recipient enable tracking cells over a week using low levels of labeling radioactivity without causing cellular toxicity.