NIEHS scientists study how environmental factors affect human health. Sometimes this research leads to breakthroughs that can improve diagnosis, treatment or understanding of disease mechanisms.
THE Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) acts as a point of contact within the NIEHS for all new inventions carried out by intramural researchers and protects the intellectual property interests of the institute. It allows NIEHS researchers to collaborate more effectively with their counterparts in academia, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector to deliver innovations that benefit human health.
Learn more about NIEHS researchers’ technological advancements in 2024 and other key OTT activities below.
Lung diseases and allergies
Michael Fessler, MDclinical director of the NIEHS, received a patent on February 6, 2024 for his technology targeting a specific protein called EMP2 on the lining of the airways. It is currently in collaboration with Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research Inc. to develop antibodies to treat lung diseases, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and cystic fibrosis.
Geoffrey Mueller, Ph.D.director of the NIEHS Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Research Center, modified the main peanut allergen, called Ara h 2, to stop its binding to patients’ antibodies. This technology is used to develop improved treatments for peanut allergies by inducing a more sustained response and fewer side effects than current therapies. Additionally, the technology provides the basis for a diagnosis to track the patient’s response to a peanut allergen.
Data sharing and acquisition
According to Sharon Soucek, Ph.D. director of OTT, the office has been busy over the past year sharing data with various collaborators for projects related to Personalized Environmental and Gene Study (PEGS) and the Virtual Clustered Cancer Registry Linkage System (VPR-CLS).
PEGS is a long-term project to collect health, exposure, medical and genetic data from a diverse group of more than 19,000 people in North Carolina. It integrates genetic and environmental data to understand the causes, identify risk factors and improve disease prevention. Providing access to PEGS data through data use agreements to a variety of collaborators expands the scientific scope of this dataset, while protecting patient privacy.
Regarding data received through the VPR-CLS, “the transfer agreements we have signed ensure that researchers can obtain data from cancer registries in multiple states and analyze data from patients enrolled in the VPR-CLS. Sister study and the Gulf Study,” said Cindo Nicholson, Ph.D.the OTT technology transfer and patent specialist.
Head of the Epidemiology Department Dale Sandler, Ph.D.leads both the Sister Study and the GuLF Study – the former involving sisters of women with breast cancer and the latter involving people involved in oil spill response and cleanup.
Practical education
OTT partners with RTI International and the Federal Laboratories Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) to pilot the FLC/RTI Collaboration on Entrepreneurship Education and Technology Exchange (FREETEC)according to Soucek. FREETEC provides an incubator for student researchers to conduct critical proof-of-concept experiments to advance federal laboratory technologies toward commercialization.
The pilot study will use technology developed by Stavros Garantziotis, MDhead of the matrix biology group in the Immunity, Inflammation and Disease Laboratory. This technology involves a new class of compounds capable of blocking hyaluronan, a natural molecule that plays a role in the onset of respiratory diseases, such as asthma and COPD. NIEHS researchers plan to collaborate with RTI, due to its expertise in translational science, and with students at North Carolina Central University to develop a research project that enhances the commercial potential of the invention.
“We are also pleased to have launched a pilot program to train NIEHS fellows in technology transfer, where they conduct market research and analysis for invention disclosure,” Soucek explained.
(Elizabeth Witherspoon, Ph.D., is a contract technical writer in the NIEHS Office of Communications and Public Liaison.)