1:05 p.m., Nov. 8, 2002--The first commercialization of biotechnology developed in a University of Delaware laboratory at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute has been undertaken by NaPro BioTherapeutics.
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| Eric B. Kmiec, UD professor of biological sciences and director of applied genomics at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute. |
NaPro has announced a new pharmacogenomic service, which is the first commercialization of a proprietary gene editing technology platform that was developed by Eric B. Kmiec, UD professor of biological sciences and director of applied genomics at DBI.
The service was announced in October at the American Society of Human Genetics annual meeting held in Baltimore, during which Kmiec made a presentation on gene editing. This is the first product launched by NaPro Genomics, a division of the Boulder, Colo.-based pharmaceutical company located in the Delaware Technology Park in Newark.
NaPro's unique service provides a gene of interest customized with any desired single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) or haplotype. This novel technology delivers to researchers highly specific panels of genes ready for transfer into cells and/or animal models for target validation, drug safety and efficacy assays and studies of gene function.
Kmiec explained that the technology has value in the pharmaceutical industry by helping manufacturers predict with greater accuracy the effectiveness of new drugs on the general population.
“Pharmaceutical companies suspect that people who do not respond to drug treatments may have genetic differences but they have had a difficult time in testing the drugs on the entire array of genetic variations, until now,” Kmiec said. “This will help them do that. As a result, the drugs they manufacture will be much more effective for more people”
“Our technology is a bridge from the vast amount of genetic sequence data to functional biology and drug development,” Jeffrey White, president of NaPro's Genomics Division, said. “We are pleased to be able to provide unique and customized chromosomes which use the natural regulatory process of gene expression in a test system, providing a better representation of drug response, disease modeling and gene function within a given patient population. Our breakthrough technology provides a faster result in a simple, highly specific assay.”
Kmiec said he is excited about the technology transfer because it fulfills the promise of DBI. “Under the leadership of UD President David P. Roselle, the idea of DBI was to do research in an academic lab and generate ideas that can then be transferred over to a company for the purpose of commercialization,” he said.
“Support of the academic work by the University of Delaware has been responsible in part for the commercial success,” Kmiec said, adding that he encourages continued support because such ventures are “a win-win situation for the University and the state of Delaware as they generate new high technology jobs.”
“The fact that NaPro has located its entire genomics effort here, with 25 employees now and plans for growth, is a testament to the spirit of DBI created by the director, David Weir,” Kmiec said, adding that “NaPro has been working quietly and without fanfare, yet in the end has delivered the product, and that is what counts in this industry.”
“As a lab, we were fortunate enough to get NaPro interested in our work,” Kmiec said, and now that company is “commercializing something developed at UD that will have a significant impact on the community.”
Article by Neil Thomas
Photo by Kathy Flickinger
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