Technology Development and Licensing
At Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (LIMR) we have a unique mix of knowledge-based academic culture with invention-based entrepreneurialism, which we call an ACAPRENEURIAL™ strategy. To date, more than 15 biomedical start-up companies have incubated in LIMR side-by-side with our research laboratories. We license out our intellectual property and spin out companies to develop those technologies.
LIMR also provides space and resources to early-stage companies whose biomedical products align with LIMR's expertise. We direct our research activities toward practical inventions that can lead to commercially viable clinical innovations.
Our ACAPRENEURIAL™ model is more effective for medical impact, because bench-to-bedside discovery relies on biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to finance expensive clinical trials and FDA-approval processes for new medical tests, tools or drugs. Because there is an increased demand for bioscience to yield health care return on investment, LIMR’s organization drives commercialization of our laboratory discoveries, generates new collaborations, and helps our researchers more rapidly and directly impact patient treatment and care.
Acapreneurial™
LIMR's signature ACAPRENEURIAL™ model focuses on invention, intellectual property and new company development, with a secondary goal of pursuing new academic knowledge.
Intellectual property and other technology available for licensing
View a list of LIMR-developed IP and technologies are available for licensing.
Biotech incubator and services
We identify new, early-stage biotechnology companies to join the LIMR incubator, and once on board, offer LIMR's ACAPRENEURIALTM approach and services to help them launch and succeed.
Lankenau Ventures
Lankenau Ventures is a new business established to accelerate development and commercialization of medical inventions conceived by frontline healthcare workers.
Technologies in the clinic
LIMR was instrumental in bringing the following therapeutics to patient care:Indoximod is a small molecule drug in late-stage clinical development that targets the IDO pathway with a distinct mechanism of action. The drug was developed in a collaboration between NewLink Genetics Corp. and LIMR.
Incubated at LIMR, Synovasure by CD Diagnostics is an FDA-authorized product that tests patients’ synovial fluid for periprosthetic joint infection (PJI), most often seen in knee and hip replacements. Developed by Carl Deirmengian, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon at Main Line Health and a clinical assistant professor at LIMR, Synovasure tests for a peptide released by neutrophils. The test has sensitivity and specificity rates that are markedly better than other available tests. CD Diagnostics is now a subsidiary of Zimmer Biomet.
Learn more about Synovasure® in the Spring 2017 issue of Catalyst
MyNauseaRisk test is LIMR's blood-based assay that reliably predicts which cancer patients will experience delayed-onset nausea after chemotherapy, even before the chemotherapy is administered.
Learn more about MyNauseaRisk in the spring/summer 2018 edition of Catalyst
LIMR's TIMP-4 test determines if small triple-negative breast cancers are aggressive, and therefore are best treated with chemotherapy.
Currently on the market
Boehringer Ingelheim's blood thinner dabigatran etexilate (Pradaxa®) was pioneered in clinical trials administered through LIMR. A collaboration funded by the company also promised to extend the drug's use to cancer patients.
In preclinical development
Genisphere, LLC collaborated with LIMR in the development of a therapy targeting the mRNA-binding protein HuR using 3DNA nano-carriers for treating ovarian cancer. LIMR researchers also used the 3DNA nanotherapy to successfully deliver in a highly targeted fashion a low-dose treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, inserting the therapeutic directly into B cells in mice.
MYNARI Biomedical, Fort Washington, PA, is developing and commercializing MyNauseaRisk, a LIMR-developed blood assay that reliably and objectively predicts which cancer patients are most likely to experience acute nausea after chemotherapy.
OCMS Bio, LLC, Wynnewood, PA, is commercializing On-Cell mAb Screening (OCMS™), a novel technology developed at LIMR that produces monoclonal antibodies. It improves the standard technology in several ways: Most importantly it enables rapid identification and isolation of B cells that secrete antibodies with desired characteristics that can be challenging or impossible to obtain by existing methods.
Duet Therapeutics, Inc., Princeton, NJ, is commercializing a set of LIMR-developed inventions to treat common, age-associated forms of blindness, including diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration.
IO Biotech is working with LIMR on a novel cancer vaccine methodology. Preclinical studies have shown that animals treated with the experimental approach not only had total remission of their cancers, but also showed complete protection against re-introduction of tumor cells. IO Biotech owns the intellectual property.
Dynamis Therapeutics, Inc. is developing a small molecule drug for the treatment of diabetic complications and other autoimmune diseases. The drug was discovered in collaboration with LIMR scientists.
Telesis Therapeutics is developing a small molecule cancer drug discovered at LIMR.
ProActive HealthSciences is developing a method to treat esophageal cancer based on studies done at LIMR.