CCTEC eNews: April 2009

C dots may improve cancer imaging

Cornell University, Ithaca - To diagnose and remove cancer cells, surgeons must identify the location and size of the tumor, a challenge currently addressed by imaging techniques based on sound waves, radio waves, and optical probes that use fluorescent light particles injected inside the body. Hybrid Silica Technologies, Inc., a new business founded on Cornell technologies, is partnering with researchers at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to explore ways to improve cancer imaging using C dots, a flourescent nanoparticle developed at Cornell. C dots were developed in 2005 by Hooisweng Ow, then a graduate student working with Ulrich Wiesner, Cornell professor of materials science and engineering. Sloan-Kettering researchers were interested in whether C dots offered better results than quantum dots in detecting and illuminating tumors in mice.

Research results from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering experiments are promising, suggesting that C dots are safe for the body, versatile, bright and biostable.  Compared to “free dyes” C dots emit an estimated three times more light and can bind with a wider variety of organic materials to improve imaging quality.  C dots can be coated with polyethlylene glycol to protect them from being recognized and cleared by white blood cells in the body. Their small size (C dots can be made to ten nanometers or smaller) enables them to be effectively cleared thru the kidneys over a 48-hour period.

Dye molecules are encased inside a silica-based core which is contained inside a rigid silica shell to form C dots.

The silica core of C dots contains dye molecules encased in a rigid silica shell. Silica is a non-toxic material commonly found in nature in sand and quartz, but also found in our bodies, and in fruits, grains and vegetables. In contrast, quantum dots are made of toxic materials including cadmium and lead. Kenneth Wang, Ow and Weisner co-founded Hybrid Silica Technologies to commercialize the C dots and are exploring additional applications in displays, biological imaging, optical computing, sensors and microarrays.

Q Therapeutics, Inc. begins clinical trials on their first product

Weill Cornell Medical College - Q Therapeutics, Inc. is working to help the millions of people who suffer from debilitating diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) that currently available pharmaceutical and biotechnology products cannot repair. The company is beginning clinical trials this year on its first product, Q-Cells^TM to test whether Q-Cells^TMcan treat demyelinating diseases such as transverse myelitis, multiple sclerosis (MS), and potentially some traumatic spinal cord injuries in humans. Q-Cells^TM are not stem cells; instead, they are glial progenitor cells that in animal experiments, repaired rather than replaced, myelin on injured neurons when they were injected into the brain or spinal cord near the point of injury. Research from Dr. Steven Goldman formerly of the Weill Cornell Medical College on the use of stem cells and progenitor cells for treating the human brain has contributed to Q Therapeutic Inc.’s broad patent portfolio.

When injected into myelin-defective models, Q-Cells^TM (human glial cell nuclei stained red) produce normal myelin (stained green).

Earlier this year the company received $8 million in Series B funding and hopes to raise $7 million to $12 million more in the coming months. That money will allow the company to get its first clinical data using human subjects. Q Therapeutics, Inc. expects to file its investigational new drug application this year with the FDA; clinical trials will take place at Johns Hopkins University on wheelchair bound patients with transverse myelitis, a severe form of multiple sclerosis. In the interim, Q Therapeutics, Inc. is developing drug discovery research tools based on Q-Cell^TM that could be on the market and starting to generate revenue within a year.

Q-Cells^TM were identified by Q Therapeutic’s cofounder Dr. Mahendra Rao through research conducted at the University of Utah and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Rao started the company in 2004 with help from Dennis Farrar, a founder of Myriad Genetics Inc. and other biotechs. Q-Cells^TM will be manufactured at the University of Utah's Cell Therapy Facility in accordance with FDA requirements.