Back in mid-2015, the Indiana University Research and Technology Corp. struck a deal with California-based La Jolla Pharmaceutical Co. to acquire intellectual property rights to “next-generation” offshoots of gentamicin — a hospital-grade antibiotic which has limited use because of its toxicity.

Because the offshoots have shown signs of lacking such toxicity, they hold promise in treating such diseases as cystic fibrosis and Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy. Through another agreement between IURTC and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, La Jolla also obtained the option to apply gentamicin derivatives toward treatment of such diseases.

In this week’s issue of the Indianapolis Business Journal, writer Sam Stall takes a detailed look at how IU Department of Medicine professor Dr. Bruce Molitoris and the IURTC have worked since 2006 to try to commercialize the compound.

“You always need an office like this to handle patenting, or else I think it would rarely get done,” Molitoris, a professor of medicine and integrative and cellular physiology, told the IBJ in the Jan. 2 article. “If testing bears out, it has the potential to treat diseases that affect 30 million in the U.S. and 300 million worldwide.”

Read more about the work of Molitoris and the IURTC here: