Licensing opportunity
Ariane De Agostini from the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics at the Geneva University Hospital, Switzerland, and Robert Linhardt from the Reensslaer Institute in New York, USA, have purified heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) from human follicular fluid and are seeking sponsorships for research and development of HSPGs for therapeutic use, and want to license the US pending patents that describe their use.
HSPGs in tissues such as the ovary can control hormone-dependent tissue remodeling by mediating proteolysis and local inflammatory responses. The HSPGs that De Agostini and Lindhart have been looking at could be used to reduce thrombosis, particularly in post-menopausal women, modulate cell migration in certain cancers, and to treat infertility.
The researchers have found a method to purify HSPGs from follicular fluids and determined their structure, binding proteins and function, for example their anti-coagulant activity, making it a particularly good drug development candidate.
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