RE: BGU dscientists unlock key to blood brain barr This looks very interesting and about where BTI was a few years ago. Lauren Technologies is a small, private Biotech with a research team at Ben-Gurion…a co. that has yet to set up a website…and this grant is just a step further along the path to much more research, that will take the requisite time…a few years at least… before human clinical trials. The Co. will have to go public one would assume, to raise gobs of investment capital and go through many growing pains, research studies, collaborations with pharmas, etc… not sure about its’ management (Contact: Susan Rosenbaum srosenbaum@laurensciences.com 212-737-0455).
The technology looks like it can accommodate small molecules but not large molecules and if so, many drugs would be unsuitable. I’m sure others here are going to comment but at this time I see no threat to BTI and its patented Transcend technology from "V-Smart" at this time. It has much to prove and a long way to go.
“After eight years of intensive work, a team of Ben-Gurion University scientists has overcome the “blood brain barrier” that prevents drugs from passing into the brain and reaching specific targets to fight disease….(About BGN Technologies … BGN Technologies is the technology transfer company of Ben-Gurion University, responsible for the commercialization of know-how and inventions of the University's researchers….)
In an interview on Sunday with The Jerusalem Post, Heldman predicted that the technology could be used in clinical trials in about two years….The work on oral medication delivery is preliminary but very promising, Heldman said. Teams working elsewhere have found other methods, including the injection of hyperosmotic solutions that shrink cells or the injection of drugs into the brain…“So far, the delivery system has been shown to work,” he said. “But it still needs a lot of development. I estimate that in six months we can persuasively prove that the system works.”
“Lauren Sciences LLC's research team at Ben-Gurion University awarded Campbell Foundation grant to develop a V-Smart therapeutic for neuro-HIV
New York, N.Y., July 10, 2012 -- Lauren Sciences LLC, a privately-held biotechnology company furthering development of its new V-Smart™ nanovesicle platform technology, announced today the award of a grant from The Campbell Foundation to its research team at Ben-Gurion University. The grant from Campbell will support development of the novel V-Smart™ nanovesicles for systemic delivery of tenofovir across the blood brain barrier (BBB)…
"Our pre-clinical studies so far demonstrate that our novel V-Smart™ nano-sized vesicles encapsulate small molecules, peptides, proteins and nucleic acids, transport them across the BBB and release their encapsulated contents in the brain," said Eliahu Heldman, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus at Ben-Gurion University…