Moving IU innovation to market to improve Hoosier health

Posted on March 22, 2023 by Ryan Piurek

Bri Heron, technology marketing manager at Indiana University’s Innovation and Commercialization Office, contributed to the following story.

In the last 30 years, Indiana University researcher Mark Kelley has disclosed 61 inventions, been awarded 19 patents, created a startup and licensed three of his technologies. He credits partnerships with IU’s Innovation and Commercialization Office (ICO) and IU Ventures for helping to advance his research innovations, bringing them to market and ultimately allowing him to positively impact lives here in Indiana and beyond.

Mark Kelley

The IU ICO works to identify, protect and commercialize technology developed by IU researchers. IU Ventures, IU’s early-stage venture and angel investment arm, invests in new high-potential ideas and innovations with strong IU connections.

“IU’s Innovation and Commercialization Office has been a tremendous resource over the years, particularly with launching my startup,” said Kelley, Betty and Earl Herr Professor of Pediatric Oncology Research at the IU School of Medicine, associate director of basic science research at the IU Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, and chief scientific founder and officer of Apexian Pharmaceuticals. “They have stuck with me since the mid-1990s, and especially during challenging years, including the market crash of 2008-2009 as my startup was just getting going.”

“The ICO has helped me effectively explore the commercial potential of my research and getting innovation to the marketplace, while IU Ventures has proven to be a great partner in pushing my startup company forward through financial investment and the valuable connections it has with other entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders. Working in close tandem with these two IU entities has truly been a win-win, enabling our team to advance the development of therapies that we hope will improve the lives of patients with debilitating or life-threatening ailments.”

Kelley’s research focuses on how DNA damage and repair and redox signaling can be utilized therapeutically to treat a variety of diseases. More specifically, he has focused on the enzyme APE1/Ref-1 as a therapeutic target for a number of cancers such as pediatric sarcomas, pancreatic, and bladder, and for other diseases where preclinical data suggests APE1/Ref-1 could play a major therapeutic role.

His latest success involves the advancement of a possible preventative therapeutic oral drug (APX3330) to slow progression of diabetic retinopathy, which is pending further clinical studies.

Currently, eight million adults in the U.S. are affected by diabetic retinopathy, and Kelley’s drug can be utilized as a treatment option for those in earlier stages of the disease.

“While we have spent most of our time and research efforts in cancer studies, some of the same pathways and particularly the target APE1/Ref-1 are also important in other diseases like diabetic retinopathy and inflammatory bowel disease, which has given us a chance to broaden our potential clinical impact,” Kelley said.

Kelley’s startup, Apexian Pharmaceuticals, which is headquartered in Indianapolis, is focused on the treatment of life-threatening diseases mediated by the APE1/Ref-1 protein. It recently entered into an agreement with Ocuphire Pharma, a public clinical-stage ophthalmic biopharmaceutical company, to license APX3330. Recently, Ocuphire released its Phase 2 Clinical Trial Results of Oral APX3330, which evaluated the safety and efficacy of the oral drug to benefit patients living with diabetic retinopathy.

In recent years, IU Ventures has made investments in Apexian totaling $400,000, though the organization’s relationship with Kelley dates back more than a decade. From 2008 to 2010, he served as a member of the board of directors and the executive committee for the IU Research and Technology Corporation, which now operates as IU Ventures. Kelley has also had an active role in networking and panelist events hosted by IU Ventures to speak about his experiences and provide mentorship to other IU inventors. To this end, he will be a featured panelist at the upcoming IU Founders & Funders Network Venture Summit, which will bring the best of IU’s startup community to Bloomington for a two-day event, May 18-19.

“The support IU has given me has been critical in furthering my research to find more effective therapeutics for hard-to-treat cancers and diseases,” Kelley said. “Bringing laboratory research to market and getting investors interested in your scientific discoveries, especially at the earliest stages, can be incredibly tough sledding, and it takes a tremendous amount of time and energy. That’s why it’s been so important to have the talent, expertise, connections and resources that IU has made available to innovators. It’s ensured that great discoveries don’t just die on the vine and that IU research is used to dramatically improve the lives of the people of Indiana and beyond.”

IU School of Medicine researcher develops a novel, highly efficient method of producing retinal organoids

Posted on March 14, 2023 by Ryan Piurek

Bri Heron, technology marketing manager at Indiana University’s Innovation and Commercialization Office, contributed the following story.

Current treatment options for degenerative retinal diseases are only temporary fixes. Degeneration of the retina can lead to partial loss of vision or complete blindness; however, a team of Indiana University researchers have found a method of developing retinal organoids that could lead to treatments that slow or reverse the disease.

Jason Meyer

Jason Meyer, PhD, an associate professor and the A. Donald Merritt Investigator of Medical and Molecular Genetics at the IU School of Medicine, and his team have developed a novel method of differentiating retinal cells from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). Meyer’s team has demonstrated a highly efficient approach to direct the differentiation of iPS cells into three-dimensional retinal organoids, which are three-dimensional representations of retinal tissue.

“Essentially, this differentiation tool helps with the study of retinal diseases,” Meyer said. “We can observe the development and degeneration of retinal neurons including retinal ganglion cells.”

Previously, generating cultures of 3D retinal organoids resulted in a relatively low yield (30-40 percent) of cells, but Meyer’s approach has resulted in a 100 percent yield of retinal organoids with a consistent shape and size, thus improving the study of retinal diseases significantly due to their more reliable and realistic representation of the human retina. Utilizing these retinal organoids can be instrumental for drug development to slow or reverse retinal degeneration.

Meyer’s paper, published in Stem Cell Reports, describes how retinal ganglion cells can be utilized to study how retinal cells are adversely affected in diseases such as glaucoma, and demonstrated the potential for drug screening approaches to identify possible treatments for optic neuropathies.

“While the use of stem cells and retinal organoids may have more immediate applications for the study of retinal diseases and the development of new drugs, alternate approaches are needed at advanced stages of retinal degenerative diseases when substantial numbers of cells have been lost,” said Meyer. “In this case, rather than fixing existing cells, there will be a need to replace those lost cells. Through these highly efficient methods for generating retinal organoids, investigators now have a virtually unlimited source of replacement cells to repopulate the retina and replace those cells that have been lost.”

Meyer has worked with the Innovation and Commercialization Office (ICO) for several inventions over the years and credits the office for his success.

“ICO has been instrumental in moving the needle while we continue our research,” said Meyer. “From patent filing to commercializing, ICO has been helpful every step of the way.”

Below is a 2019 video spotlighting Meyer’s biology lab, its work to fix damaged human retinal systems with stem cells and efforts to maintain a team spirit.

Strengthening civics education in Indiana and beyond

Posted on March 10, 2023 by Ryan Piurek

This week (March 6-10) marked the nation’s first-ever Civic Learning Week, which brought together students, educators, researchers, policymakers and other community members across the U.S. to reflect on ways to strengthen civics education.

As distinguished former Indiana congressman Lee Hamilton opined this week, being a good citizen remains central to the functioning of the nation’s representative democracy. “American democracy was built on the assumption of an engaged and well-informed electorate,” he wrote in his latest “Comments on Congress” column. “It’s gotten a lot more complicated over the centuries, but if one core truth has remained constant, it’s this: If responsible citizens do not participate in the system, then the system will not work. It’s as simple as that.”

Hamilton is the founder and senior advisor of the Indiana University Center on Representative Government, a non-partisan, educational institution that aims to improve the public’s understanding of the role of representative government, strengthen civic engagement and teach the skills that are essential to sustaining the nation’s form of representative democracy. To achieve this mission, the center, which is part of IU’s Office of the Vice President for University Relations, has developed an extensive array of free civics education resources, training sessions and activities that are used in classroom and other teaching and learning settings here in Indiana and all across the country.

Several of the center’s resources support align with Indiana’s adoption of a new civics education requirement for middle school students, which will go into effect at the start of the 2023-24 school year. These include CitizIN, a free, interactive tool that explores 200 years of Indiana history, and the Indiana Civic Health Index, which helps Indiana leaders better understand the status of the state’s civic health, while inspiring them to actively engage in dialogue and actions that improve the well-being of our communities.

Recently, the center has partnered with Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus to bring to Columbus, Ind., the nationally recognized program iEngage, a free, weeklong camp for students in grades 4-8 that is designed to provide area youth with an opportunity to learn how to make a difference in their schools, neighborhoods and communities. Winner of the prestigious 2022 Sandra Day O’Connor Advancement in Civic Education award, the program focuses on developing young people’s civic and political competence and strengthening their community and political engagement through inquiry-based civics projects in which they research and act upon local community issues. There is no cost to the Bartholomew County students who participate in iEngage at IUPUC, which will run from from June 26 to 30, with registration opening on March 15.

“We’re extremely pleased to bring this successful and award-winning program to Columbus,” said Valerie Pena, associate vice president for the Office of the Vice President for University Relations and executive director of the Center of Representative Government. “As Lee Hamilton has said, ‘for our democracy to succeed, we need to teach each new generation how to become informed and engaged citizens.’ Arguably, civics education has never been as important as it is today. And central to IU’s engagement in the life of our state is a responsibility to help educate our young people about the basics of our system of representative democracy and to empower them with the knowledge, skills and frame of mind to make real positive change in their communities.

“Our iEngage program reflects IU’s commitment to that responsibility and a sincere belief that we can engage students in a way that makes learning about civics fun, exciting and meaningful.”

The most recent Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey indicated that, after two years of considerable improvement, Americans’ knowledge of basic facts about their government had fallen to earlier levels, with less than half of those surveyed able to name the three branches of U.S. government. Such reports have led the center to redouble its efforts to reach teachers and students from across the country and also the world. (The center’s website has had millions of visits from viewers in more than 180 countries.)

Last fall, the center announced it had received financial support from a leading nationwide civics initiative for a new interactive project, “Everyday Civics: Tools for Daily Living,” that aims to improve civics knowledge among American adults. The center is partnering with Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana and Walters State Community College in Tennessee on the project.

The announcement came as the center also unveiled its new “Action Citizen” multimedia interactive, which has received funding and resource support from the Library of Congress, to introduce young learners to the importance of civic engagement. The first module of the project focuses on environmental topics and the efforts that government and U.S. citizens have led to protect and preserve the nation’s lands and vital resources.

The center will offer these tools in addition to Engaging Congress, Freedom Summer 1964, CitizIN and several other teaching resources, all of which are designed to provide insights into the workings of representative government and the role of citizens in the process.

To develop each of these learning tools, which are available for download on the App Store, the center partnered with Half Full Nelson, an IU-alumnus-owned design and game development company based in Indianapolis.

Building a reliable and sustainable home- and community-based services workforce

Posted on March 10, 2023 by Ryan Piurek

“Time waits for no man. The issues of the aging are the issues of us all.”

On Thursday morning, March 9, Dr. Hannah Maxey, associate professor of family medicine and director of the Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy at the IU School of Medicine, opened with those words during her expert testimony before a U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing.

Maxey, a nationally recognized expert in health workforce policy with more than two decades of experience in health care and public health, appeared on Capitol Hill to share with committee members how several proactive U.S. states, including Indiana, are strategically working to build a reliable and sustainable home- and community-based services (HCBS) workforce and ensure their aging citizens and those with disabilities are able to receive quality care in their homes or other community settings.

In his opening remarks, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), chairman of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, underscored the nation’s “caregiving crisis.” He cited statistics indicating that nearly two-thirds of home-care providers have discontinued programs and services because of staffing shortages and that 92% of service providers struggle to meet quality-of-care standards. Casey added that the average salary of an in-home caregiver is just $19,000 a year, making it extremely difficult for those workers to provide for their own families.

After being introduced by Mike Braun, Indiana’s junior U.S. senator and newly ranking special committee member, Maxey, who serves as an expert consultant to the National Governor’s Association, outlined some of the targeted policies and programming that Indiana and other states are developing and implementing to support its HCBS workforce now and into the future. These strategies include actions to catalyze standardized workforce development and training and enhance worker wages and benefits without adding to states’ economic challenges.

As Maxey explained, a large segment of HCBS workers qualify for and receive some form of public assistance, such as Medicaid or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Strategies which increase wages to just over the qualification levels for public assistance can suddenly and negatively impact overall income—this is commonly referred to as the “benefits cliff.”

Maxey also discussed how some states are working to create registries of credentialed employees that enable workers to demonstrate their skills to new employers and identify and pursue professional growth opportunities.

“Portable credentials empower workers by demonstrating their performance achievements and facilitating their pursuit of economic opportunity among new employers, in new settings or through additional academic training and staffable credentials,” Maxey said, adding that “empowered workers power our economy.”

These same registries, when coupled with effective patient safety incident reporting, can also be used to protect aging members of the public from hiring “bad actors,” Maxey said.

As she explained to committee members, Maxey provided research support to the Indiana Direct Service Workforce Plan, which is guiding Indiana’s leading efforts to enhance access to HCBS services and improve the recruitment, training, support and retention of direct service workers in home- and community-based settings. That research was conducted at the Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy, which aims to improve population health by analyzing complex health workforce issues and informing related policy and programming.

“I’m humbled and honored to be able to represent Indiana University and represent the research we’re doing in this space,” Maxey said on the eve of her testimony as she took her son, Sebastian, on a quick tour of the National Mall. “I’m especially grateful that members of the U.S. Senate are prioritizing understanding what’s going on here in Indiana and within our states and the programs they’re designing and implementing. It’s critically important for federal legislators to keep a finger on the pulse of what’s going on in our states and ensure that the federal policies that they’re supporting align with state-based solutions.”

Click below to watch the hearing.

Hoosier hoops great Alan Henderson set to bring his new venture game back to Bloomington

Posted on March 8, 2023 by Ryan Piurek

Alan Henderson will bring both his Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame stature and entrepreneurial prowess back to Bloomington this spring when he joins the best and brightest Indiana University innovators and investors from the Hoosier state and beyond at the annual IU Founders & Funders Network Venture Summit.

Alan Henderson

The summit, hosted by IU Ventures, IU’s early-stage venture and angel investment arm, will be held May 18-19 at the Indiana Memorial Union. Summit attendees will have the opportunity to connect with industry experts, educational content, talent, investor partnerships, mentorships and other resources they might need to advance their high-potential business startups.

As one of the best IU basketball players of all time, Henderson dominated in nearly every facet of the game. He started as a freshman on IU’s 1992 Final Four team, led the Hoosiers in rebounding for four straight years, and finished his four-year college career in 1995 among IU’s all-time leaders in scoring, field goals made, rebounding, steals and blocked shots.

But cream-and-crimson diehards may not know that Henderson, who played 12 years in the NBA, excelled equally off the court. He graduated from IU with a bachelor’s degree in biology and was accepted to IU’s School of Medicine in 1995. He was also a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. During his NBA career, he earned a master’s degree from IU’s Kelley School of Business in 2010.

Now, Henderson is scoring as a successful entrepreneur and inventor. In 2020, he founded Henderson Spirits Group, which honors little-known African Americans who have made significant contributions to the world of fine spirits. With a mission to “Diversify the Bar,” the Indianapolis-headquartered company has already created two award-winning brands, Tom Bullock’s and Birdie Brown, which are distributed in nine states.

As part of the Venture Summit, Henderson will be part of a “Founders Panel” on May 19 that will explore a number of venture-related topics, including finding product market fit, developing a minimally viable product, fundraising, corporate governance and the importance of “failing fast.” He’ll be joined on the panel by fellow IU alums and venture leaders Erica Anderson, co-founder and CEO at The New Savant, Ravi Bhatt, co-founder and CEO of Folia, and Karen Wurster, chief executive officer at Adipo Therapeutics.

Henderson’s participation will further increase the quotient of Hoosier spirit at this year’s summit, which will include a keynote session featuring IU head football coach Tom Allen and hosted by Scott Dolson, IU vice president and director of intercollegiate athletics. The summit will also include a lunch session with two leaders of IU’s name, image and likeness movement, Tyler Harris, who spent the last four years with the IU Athletic Department, most recently as associate athletic director, and Collin Hartman, a five-year letter-winner for the IU men’s basketball team and member of the 2016 Big Ten Champion Hoosiers.

Registration for the summit, which is limited to 185 attendees, is now open on the IU Ventures website. Registration is $100 and includes all summit programming and special networking opportunities. IU Ventures will also offer a limited number of “first come, first served” full scholarships for current IU students to attend all Venture Summit activities.

Driving a defense innovation ecosystem

Posted on March 3, 2023 by Ryan Piurek

Last week, Indiana University economic development leaders participated in a defense industry roundtable discussion with U.S. Sen. Todd Young. The event was hosted by the Crane Regional Defense Group at WestGate@Crane Technology Park.

IU Vice President for University Relations Michael Huber and Joe Carley, IU director of economic development, were among 60 representatives from Indiana’s public and private sectors who convened to talk about the continued transformation of WestGate@Crane into a major hub of research innovation, entrepreneurship and educational programs in the 11-county Indiana Uplands region. The 750-acre park is located just outside the gates to Naval Support Activity Crane, which is located approximately 40 minutes southwest of IU’s Bloomington campus. NSA Crane, the third-largest naval installation in the world, is home to the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, a research lab and leader within the Department of Defense in microelectronics, artificial intelligence, hypersonics and other emerging technologies.

Indiana University economic development leaders participated in a recent defense industry roundtable discussion with U.S. Sen. Todd Young. The event was hosted by the Crane Regional Defense Group at WestGate@Crane Technology Park, where IU has played a leading role in the strategic effort to create one of most important mixed-use research destinations for America’s robust defense industry.

As part of the discussion, Sen. Young described the potential major impact of the recently enacted CHIPS and Science Act, which will provide a historic investment to boost U.S. manufacturing of semiconductors, on the development of WestGate@Crane and the surrounding region. Young was the co-sponsor of the $280 billion bipartisan bill, which IU was one of the first universities to champion and support. He also outlined several of his top priorities related to investing in core research and emerging technologies and engaging the private sector to explore how to implement new prototypes.

Huber and Carley were among a select group of attendees invited to provide brief overviews of their organizations and how their current initiatives are contributing to the development of Crane and the Uplands region, where IU continues to be deeply and actively engaged in working with local, state and federal leaders in igniting a dynamic innovation ecosystem.

IU has played a leading role in the ambitious, large-scale vision to transform WestGate@Crane into one of most important mixed-use research destinations for America’s robust defense industry. Carley currently serves as interim CEO of the Uplands Science and Technology Foundation, a nonprofit research foundation, established in 2021, that is leading the park’s long-term strategy around cutting-edge technology development, talent, infrastructure and industry partnerships.

That strategy has helped fuel the creation of a new, $384 million microelectronics campus at WestGate@Crane. Last fall, Indiana Gov. Eric J. Holcomb and Secretary of Commerce Brad Chambers joined local officials and business executives in breaking ground on a microelectronics packaging and testing facility, which has already secured four semiconductor companies that will anchor the development. Together, these companies plan to create up to 549 new jobs with an average salary of near $100,000 in the coming years.

IU also continues to contribute talent, expertise and other resources toward ensuring WestGate@Crane builds upon NSWC Crane’s increasing role as a national leader in its core focus areas of electronic warfare, expeditionary systems and strategic missions. IU and NSWC Crane recently extended a strategic partnership, initiated in 2012 and renewed in 2017, that will ensure a continuation of high-impact educational and research collaborations in, among other key areas, high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, cybersecurity, technology transfer, systems hardware, quantum computing and regional economic development.

The signing came a year after IU renewed a longstanding Educational Partnership Agreement with NSA Crane. Established in 2011, the multiyear agreement, signed by IU President Pamela Whitten during her inaugural visit to the naval installation, enables opportunities for IU students, faculty and staff to collaborate with Crane personnel on sustainability and conservation strategies, as well as on research projects in AI, machine learning and other areas in service to national defense.

IU School of Medicine researcher develops non-invasive tool to detect mutations that could potentially lead to breast cancer

Posted on February 24, 2023 by Ryan Piurek

Bri Heron, technology marketing manager at Indiana University’s Innovation and Commercialization Office, contributed the following story.

A non-invasive diagnostic test to detect mutations that could lead to early-stage breast cancer has been developed by Indiana University researcher Harikrishna Nakshatri, Marian J. Morrison Professor of Breast Cancer Research and professor of surgery, biochemistry and molecular biology at the IU School of Medicine.

Studies have shown early detection results in better survival and less treatment for breast cancer. But the most common method of early detection is screening mammography, and it is not perfect, especially for women with dense breasts. Additional imaging such as a screening ultrasound and breast MRI can identify cancers not seen on mammograms in some patients, but IU researchers are looking for non-invasive tests (assays) to detect cancer cells before women develop symptoms or if changes are identified on mammogram.

“Breast cancer originates from specific cells within the breast due to gene mutations. The number of mutations increases as the cancer progresses and metastasizes to other organs,” said Nakshatri. “To achieve maximum response to treatment, cancer needs to be detected early when the mutation burden is low. Assays that can identify cancer cells early in the disease can help achieve this goal.”

Nakshatri began working on the development after being approached by Kandice Ludwig, associate clinical professor of surgery at the IU School of Medicine and a breast surgeon at IU Health North Hospital, whose patient developed breast cancer in her right breast while breastfeeding. Nakshatri and his team were able to develop a new method of characterizing cells from the patient’s donated breast milk.

“There are numerous mutations that happen in our cells on a daily basis, and while not all of these mutations are cancerous, characterizing the cells from the breast milk helps determine what types of mutations can develop when women breastfeed,” Nakshatri said. “Furthermore, characterizing the cells helps differentiate which mutations could lead to breast cancer and which ones are benign.”

The tests were performed on donor milk from 10 other women with no history of breast cancer for comparison. Researchers were able to determine that two of the women’s breast milk contained cells that carried similar mutations associated with breast cancer.

“Breast cells grow quickly during breastfeeding, so by detecting those potentially defective cells early, we may be able to identify women at risk for cancer development and refer them for preventative measures.” Nakshatri said.

The team published a paper in 2020 in the American Association for Cancer Research journal that detailed the methods behind detecting and characterizing the breast milk-derived cells. Since then, Nakshatri and his team have had 100% success rate in growing the cells from the breast milk, and if cancer cells are identified in the breast, rapid characterization of the cells and sensitivity of cancer cells to FDA-approved drugs can be measured in as little as 15-20 days.

“While additional investigation is necessary to determine whether this method of characterization of cancer cells in breast milk can be used as a detection tool for women at increased risk of developing breast cancer, this is extremely promising work.” said Dr. Ludwig.

Nakshatri has patented this invention, along with several others, at IU’s Innovation and Commercialization Office to help further his research of breast cancer.

IU School of Medicine researchers find RAP minimizes nephrotoxicity and acute kidney injury

Posted on February 16, 2023 by Ryan Piurek

Bri Heron, technology marketing manager at Indiana University’s Innovation and Commercialization Office, contributed the following story.

Bruce Molitoris, MD, MS, a distinguished professor emeritus at the Indiana University School of Medicine and internationally acclaimed scientist, has determined that the Alpha-2-macroglubin Receptor Associated Protein, a naturally occurring protein inhibitor of kidney proximal tubule reabsorption, minimizes drug-induced kidney injury (nephrotoxicity), which is one of the main contributors behind acute kidney injury.

Bruce Molitoris stands in front of a computer screen that shows a multi-color image of kidney function. — Bruce A. Molitoris, distinguished professor of medicine, IU School of Medicine

Acute kidney injury occurs in an estimated one in five adults and one in three children hospitalized with acute illness, and the incidence is increasing. Acute kidney injury develops rapidly and results in the kidney’s inability to remove waste products from the blood. Drugs that can cause acute kidney injury are termed nephrotoxins, and they lead to 20 percent of hospitalized cases of acute kidney injury. Therapeutic agents such as antibiotics, radiocontrast and cancer drugs are nephrotoxic. They are filtered by the kidney and reabsorbed and concentrated within proximal tubule cells, thus leading to cellular injury and acute kidney injury. There is currently no FDA-approved drug therapy for the prevention of acute kidney injury.

Currently, there are no treatments to inhibit proximal tubule reabsorption of potential toxins to prevent kidney injury. Molitoris and his team discovered that administering the receptor associated protein turned off reabsorption of a toxic antibiotic and minimized acute kidney injury.

“Being able to turn off proximal tubule reabsorption rapidly and reversibly is a major step forward in potentially preventing nephrotoxicity from any filtered drug,” said Molitoris. “This would allow clinicians to provide patients at a high risk for acute kidney injury potential nephrotoxic therapies and also provide higher doses of nephrotoxic drugs to others to improve efficacy while minimizing the side effect of acute kidney injury.”

In the study, Molitoris and colleagues used rat models to understand the impact of the receptor associated protein on aminoglycoside-induced acute kidney injury. They determined the inhibitor caused minimal change in kidney function, while those with the placebo developed severe acute kidney injury.

Based on these findings, Molitoris and his team determined that the receptor associated protein has the potential to be used to prevent drug induced acute kidney injury in patients in care situations such as hospitals, ICUs or infusion centers if it is given before administering the nephrotoxic agent.

The Molitoris team has disclosed several intentions with IU’s Innovation and Commercialization Office, and recently filed a patent to protect this research.

One of only a few international leaders in nephrology whose research focuses on acute kidney injury, Molitoris established and developed the Indiana Center for Biological Microscopy. Established in 1996, the center is now a vital research core facility supporting biomedical research needs of more than 100 laboratories in Indiana.

He has published over 100 original research papers and has received over $25 million in funded research support from the National Institutes of Health, Veterans Administration, American Heart Association and Lilly Pharmaceuticals. He also holds six patents and is the founding member and manager of INphoton, LLC, and cofounder of Pharmacophotonics (now FAST BioMedical).

More about Molitoris and his past pioneering research is available on IU’s University Honors and Awards website.

‘Best in Tech’ award nominees reflect IU’s advancement of high-potential startups

Posted on February 15, 2023 by Ryan Piurek

Earlier today, Indianapolis-based growth accelerator TechPoint unveiled the nominees for its 24^th annual Mira Awards, which honor the “Best in Tech” in Indiana. Continuing a recent trend, this year’s nominees reflect Indiana University’s successful efforts to advance high-potential startup companies with strong university affiliations, while also contributing to the expansion of Indiana’s technology ecosystem.

Among this year’s Mira Awards nominees are three young companies that are part of the growing investment portfolio of IU Ventures, IU’s early-stage venture and angel investment arm. Each of the companies, Adipo Therapeutics of Indianapolis, Fishers-based spokenote, and Civic Champs of Bloomington, will be featured in the “Product Innovation of the Year” category, which honors scientific achievements, tech R&D efforts and other trailblazing discoveries.

Additionally, Ravi Bhatt, co-founder and CEO of Bloomington-based Folia, another IU Ventures portfolio company, was nominated for the “Rising Entrepreneur Award.” This is the second consecutive year Bhatt will compete for the award, which recognizes Indiana’s most exceptional non-student startup founders or operators of any age and experience.

The Mira Awards are Indiana’s largest, best-known and most prestigious technology awards. Past award-winners and nominees alike have gone on to become the state’s greatest tech successes. In delivering its announcement, TechPoint praised the year’s class of nominees, which includes individuals, educators, community organizations, state agencies, investors, entrepreneurs and tech employers. Collectively, the 78 nominees employ more than 57,000 Hoosiers and represent more than $20 billion in annual revenue.

The awards will once again shine a spotlight on IU’s active engagement to build a pervasive culture of innovation and entrepreneurship across Indiana through its focus on assisting IU students, faculty, staff and alums with advancing high-potential new venture opportunities.

Two years ago, IU Ventures was named 2021 Investor of the Year for its efforts to invest in and support diverse Indiana startups. It was also recognized as “one of the most active funding sources in the state during the pandemic.”

Last spring, Indianapolis-based Encamp, an award-winning environmental compliance data management and reporting company, competed at the Mira Awards for “Tech Product of the Year.” IU Ventures was the first “institutional” investor in Encamp, and to date, it has invested more than $775,000 in the pioneering company, which was co-founded in 2017 by Luke Jacobs and Daniel Smedema, graduates of IU Bloomington’s College of Arts and Sciences.

The latest Mira Award nominees represent two of the more recent additions to the IU Ventures investment portfolio, Folia and Adipo Therapeutics.

Folia was founded by College of Arts and Sciences alumnus Ravi Bhatt, who recently relocated his fast-emerging business annotation startup from Chicago to Bloomington. As the company’s CEO, he plans to dramatically expand Folia’s workforce with the support of a milestone investment by two of IU Ventures’ major investment programs, the IU Angel Network and the IU Philanthropic Venture Fund. Together, the two programs contributed more than half of Folia’s recent $2 million seed funding round.

Earlier this year, IU Ventures invested $150,000 in Adipo Therapeautics, a pre-clinical stage company that has developed a breakthrough technology to treat metabolic diseases, including type two diabetes mellitus and obesity. Adipo is led by Karen Wurster, an IU Kelley School of Business alumna with over 25 years of experience in developing and commercializing billion-dollar diabetes products.

Bhatt and Wurster will join fellow award nominee Gene Wang, CEO and co-founder of volunteer and mentorship management platform Civic Champs, as featured speakers at the IU Founders & Funders Network Venture Summit, to be held May 18-19 at the IU Bloomington campus. The annual event brings together the best of IU’s startup community, providing its members with the opportunity to find industry experts, educational content, talent, investor partnerships, mentorship and other resources they need to advance their businesses.

By the time of the summit, they will know whether they need to add one more line to their list of accomplishments. Mira Award nominees will present their cases and be interviewed by judges in March. Award winners will be announced during an in-person gala at the J.W. Marriott in downtown Indianapolis on April 22.

IU researcher develops new therapy for treatment of ALS

Posted on February 2, 2023 by Ryan Piurek

Bri Heron, technology marketing manager at Indiana University’s Innovation and Commercialization Office, contributed the following story.

Indiana University researcher Chandler Walker, Ph.D., has developed a new stem cell-based secretome therapy that influences both the central and peripheral components of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis pathology. Secretome refers to the secretions of tissue or cells that can be harvested for therapeutic or other purposes.

One in 50,000 people has ALS, a rare neurodegenerative disease that primarily affects the nerve cells that control voluntary muscle movement and causes the gradual degeneration and death of upper and lower motor neurons in the central nervous system. Death of motor neurons is a hallmark of ALS, but other cells in the brain and spinal cord, as well as peripheral myelinating cells and skeletal muscle, all play a role in disease progression.

Chandler Walker

The average survival time after diagnosis of ALS is three to five years, and there is currently no cure or treatment to stop or reverse disease progression. While a few FDA-approved drugs provide marginal therapeutic benefits for patients, they primarily only target the central nervous system while the peripheral nervous system continues to degenerate.

“Getting an effective therapy to people with ALS sooner than later is our top priority,” said Walker, an associate professor at the IU School of Dentistry and adjunct associate professor of anatomy, cell biology and physiology at the IU School of Medicine. Given the rapid progression of ALS, time is of utmost concern for afflicted individuals, their families and caretakers. With the limited efficacy of current approved treatments, having a new therapy that could slow disease progression and prolong life would positively affect thousands of individuals in the United States alone.

Walker’s research, published in Neural Regeneration Research, has shown therapeutic benefits at various stages of disease progression in an ALS mouse model. Administering the treatment delayed symptom progression, reduced neuromuscular degeneration and extended survival time. Daily systemic administration of the therapy allows for targeting of both central and peripheral characteristics of disease progression. This approach sheds light on the effects of the treatment on specific types of disease pathology as well as the long-term therapeutic benefits of adipose-derived stem cell (ASC) secretome therapy.

“For neural disorders and diseases like ALS, a multi-factorial approach to therapy is the most beneficial for patients,” Walker said. As ALS negatively affects neurons in the brain and spinal cord, as well as peripheral tissues such as skeletal muscle and immune cells, targeting just one organ or set of tissues is insufficient for meaningly impacting disease progression. Walker’s ASC secretome therapy contains hundreds of growth factors and other pro-regenerative and protective components that affect the wide range of areas of the body impacted by ALS. Furthermore, neurological conditions other than ALS also involve central and peripheral pathologies. “This secretome therapy could also have a therapeutic affect for other neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s,” he said.

Chandler Walker working in his lab. — Given the limited efficacy of current approved treatments for ALS, Walker’s newly developed stem-cell-based therapy, which has shown therapeutic benefits at various stages of the disease’s progression, could positively affect thousands of individuals in the United States alone.

Walker and his team will continue their studies on the therapeutic composition of the secretome, hoping to eventually produce a clinic-ready therapy for ALS patients, thanks to $700,000 in funding from Neurodegenerative Disease Research, a nonprofit organization supporting researchers studying disease pathology and therapeutic development in ALS.

Walker has also partnered with IU School of Medicine’s Cell and Gene Therapy Manufacturing Center to optimize and produce ASC secretome for FDA approval and a Phase I clinical trial. He is optimistic that the team will have clinical-grade ASC secretome ready for clinical application in the next six to 12 months.

Walker has worked with the Innovation and Commercialization Office for a couple of other inventions, and he participated in ICO’s IU Idea to Startup Pitch Competition last October.

“I am thankful that I was able to participate in the pitch competition as it showed me a different way of presenting my ALS research,” Walker said. “I am able to apply what I learn from ICO along with the feedback from the competition to move our secretome therapy closer to the patients that need it.”

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