Northeastern University

<p>Northeastern University’s Center for Research Innovation (CRI) is an impact driven initiative bridging the gap between laboratory research and need-based solutions. The CRI serves as the University-wide portal between industry and leading-edge innovations from Northeastern’s use-inspired research portfolio.</p>
<p>Over the past seven years, research activity at Northeastern has more than doubled. Northeastern’s cutting edge faculty focus their use-inspired research on solving the nation’s greatest challenges in health, security, and sustainability. The Center for Research Innovation connects private companies with the researchers and inventions that meet their business needs – now and in the rapidly evolving future. Our team of professionals all have business and entrepreneurial experience. We strive for a high level of responsiveness and service, moving with speed and flexibility.</p>
<p><strong>Industry Connections:</strong></p>
<p>The CRI is the University’s bridge to industry. We are continuously building relationships with companies to identify their key technology needs and to explore opportunities for collaboration. Our network spans across industry, from the Life Sciences to the Physical Sciences. The CRI aims not only to license individual technologies, but to form long standing partnerships with industry, leveraging the core competencies of our faculty and students.</p>
<p><strong>Collaboration Benefits:</strong></p>
<p>The CRI aims to move beyond the standard paradigm of one-off licenses, focusing instead on forming long-term relationships with industry. We look to assist companies with their ongoing technology needs, leveraging the expertise of our faculty. Collaborating partners can expect flexible terms and IP policy, “high touch” and responsive service, world leading research and development and access to Northeastern resources, including use of labs and equipment.</p>
<p><strong>Research Capabilities:</strong></p>
<p>Northeastern has cutting-edge research in areas such as the Life Sciences, Nanotechnology and Network Research. The CRI can arrange briefings from faculty whose research aligns with your key corporate priorities.</p>
<p>The CRI team is agile and responsive – focused on the translation of University innovations into tangible solutions through licenses, spinouts and collaborations. Our dedication to establishing ongoing dialogue with industry informs Northeastern’s progressive research, enabling a productive balance between exploration and implementation.</p>


<h1 id="background">Background</h1>
<p>Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD), including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, are common, debilitating, and poorly treated conditions, affecting around eight million people worldwide. Current therapeutics include immunosuppressants and biologics that are often administered systemically. More than one-third of patients require surgical colectomy. These treatment options may reduce symptoms temporarily but even in the state of clinical remission, patients still have disease activity (e.g., inflammation) leading to relapse after a while. Complete remission happens when there are no symptoms and no disease activity in endoscopy or biopsy. Recently, it has been revealed that healing of the mucosal layer of digestive tracts can lead to longer and more permanent therapeutic outcomes. However, getting to that point is still a challenge. For instance, it is difficult to maintain a steady amount of drug at the site of disease, due to the constant flow of material through the gut. Therefore, new tools should be developed to address current limitations.</p>
<h1 id="technology-overview">Technology Overview</h1>
<p>Northeastern spinout, Tantu Therapeutics, has invented an oral live biotherapeutic patch for the treatment of wounds in the gut. The patch consists of engineered bacteria that secret therapeutic proteins with anti-inflammatory properties directly into the diseased sites. The presence of bacteria as well as secreted proteins improve gut barrier function and leads to faster mucosal healing. This patch platform can be utilized to apply partners’ drugs such as biologics (e.g., anti-TNFs, anti-interleukins, anti-integrins) into lesions for greater efficacy with fewer systemic side effects. The bacterial platform has a complete safety profile since it is made of an engineered strain of non-pathogenic <em>E. coli</em>. Bacteria multiply inside the gut, maintaining a relatively steady concentration over time, while secreting therapeutics directly at the site of disease. This strain of bacteria is engineered in a way to remain stable in the absence of antibiotic selection, which facilitates its use in vivo, and contributes to better performance as living gut therapeutics.</p>
<h1 id="benefits">Benefits</h1>
<ul>
<li>No need for systemic delivery (oral delivery)</li>
<li>High safety profile </li>
<li>Fast and efficient design of engineered strain of bacteria </li>
<li>Complete remission of disease symptoms </li>
<li>Fewer systemic side effects compared to other biologics </li>
<li>Marinating a steady amount of drug in the site of disease </li>
<li>Simultaneous delivery of other biotherapeutics</li>
</ul>
<h1 id="applications">Applications</h1>
<p>Mucosal healing in IBD diseases</p>
<h1 id="opportunity">Opportunity</h1>
<ul>
<li>Biopharma partnership </li>
<li>Applying for grant funding</li>
</ul>
