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Melanoma is an aggressive form of skin cancer that commonly becomes metastatic, spreading to nearby tissue or other parts of the body, including distant skin or subcutaneous sites such as the lungs, liver, brain, or bone. Metastatic melanoma is very drug resistant and difficult to treat, and therefore, the prognosis for these patients is poor. There is a need for effective therapies for aggressive melanoma and other drug-resistant solid cancers. 

Currently available topical antibiotic formulations effectively eliminate bacteria at a wound site. Eliminating bacteria in the wound also eliminates the molecular signals present in bacterial DNA that stimulate the immune system's wound healing processes. Without these signals, the rate of wound healing is diminished.  

Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) is a cytokine receptor which belongs in the receptor tyrosine kinase class III.  FLT3 is expressed on the surface of many hematopoietic progenitor cells and plays an important role in hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell survival and proliferation.  It is often overexpressed in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and is frequently mutated in acute myeloid leukemia (AML).  The standard therapies for ALL and AML are still suboptimal for many patients, especially pediatric.  In certain types of ALL or AML, the survival rate is less than 40 and

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

Poly-ADP ribose polymerase-1 (PARP-1) is a critical enzyme involved in DNA repair.  The inhibition of PARP has emerged as a promising strategy in cancer therapy.  Numerous PARP inhibitors have been developed and advanced into clinical trials, both for use as single agents in specific patient populations and as combination therapies with various chemotherapeutics.  The induction of strand break damage to DNA, as has been demonstrated in cancer cells treated with O2-arylated diazeniumdiolates, coupled with inhibition of DNA repair by PARP inhibitors, represents a novel rational

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (e.g. CTLA-4, PD-L1) have recently shown significant promise in the treatment of cancer.  However, when used alone, these checkpoint inhibitors are limited by the absence or repression of immune cells within the targeted cancer.  For those cancers associated with these limited immune systems, there remains a need for effective therapies.  Agents capable of recruiting and activating immune cells to these types of cancers could extend the overall and complete response rates of combination therapies within the immunooncology domain. 

Angiogenesis is the formation of new blood vessels from pre-existing blood vessels. Angiogenesis occurs during normal growth and development (physiological angiogenesis) and during the growth of solid tumors (pathological angiogenesis). CD276, also known as B7-H3, is a cell surface tumor endothelial marker that is highly expressed in the tumor vessels of human lung, breast, colon, endometrial, renal, and ovarian cancer, but not in the angiogenic vessels of normal, healthy tissue.

The tumor microenvironment consists of a heterogenous population of cells which includes tumor cells and tumor-associated stroma cells (TASCs). The TASCs promote tumor angiogenesis, proliferation, invasion and metastasis. Because stroma cells are found in both healthy and cancerous tissue, targeting the tumor stroma has been difficult due to the lack of targets with high tumor specificity.

The development of an effective HIV vaccine has been an ongoing area of research. The high variability in HIV-1 virus strains has represented a major challenge in successful development.  Ideally, an effective candidate vaccine would provide protection against the majority of clades of HIV.  Two major hurdles to overcome are immunodominance and sequence diversity.  This vaccine utilizes a strategy for overcoming these two issues by identifying the conserved regions of the virus and exploiting them for use in a targeted therapy. 

Angiogenesis is the formation of new blood vessels from pre-existing blood vessels. Angiogenesis occurs during normal growth and development, where it is known as physiological angiogenesis, and during the growth of solid tumors, where it is known as pathological angiogenesis. CD276, also known as B7-H3, is a cell surface tumor endothelial marker that is highly expressed in the tumor vessels of human lung, breast, colon, endometrial, renal, and ovarian cancer, but not in the angiogenic vessels of healthy tissue.