Forward BIO Institute

Catapult Program

The Catapult Program is a tailored technology maturation pipeline which enables targeted and progressive business, legal, regulatory, and technical development. Engagement with the program introduces team members to industry best practices and expands their network within UW-Madison and the greater Madison entrepreneurial ecosystem. It also engages the team with the Institute’s Industry Consortium partners, enabling opportunities for sponsored projects and collaborations.

 

Current Catapult Projects

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Exosome-mediated therapy for acute radiation syndrome

Exosome educated macrophages (EEM) demonstrate reparative and regenerative properties suitable for treating disease states resulting from unchecked inflammatory responses and/or direct tissue damage.  By promoting hematopoietic recovery, as well as tissue repair and regeneration, EEM therapy has the potential to ameliorate multiple conditions including the damage to hematologic, gastrointestinal, cutaneous, cardiovascular and central nervous systems resulting from excessive radiation exposure.  In addition to treating acute radiation syndrome, EEM is also being examined for potential use as a therapy for myocardial infarction and orthopedic applications.

Image courtesy of Peiman Hematti / Christian Capitini

 

Citations/IP:

Development Team:

  • Peiman Hematti, MD (pxh@medicine.wisc.edu)     The Hematti Laboratory
  • Christian Capitini, MD (ccapitini@pediatrics.wisc.edu)     The Capitini Laboratory
  • John Kink, PhD (jakink@uwcarbone.wisc.edu)
  • Matthew Forsberg, PhD (mhforsberg@wisc.edu)
  • IIT: Aicha Quamine, Aaron Simmons

Endogenous signal-based cell enrichment for immunotherapy

To improve the fidelity of quality assessments, process optimization, and thorough product characterization  prior to clinical development of cell-based therapies, researchers at UW-Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research have developed a label-free, non-destructive  optical  detection  approach  to  quantify  overall  cell  state,  viability,  and  activation  with  single-cell  resolution. Applied to Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, this non-destructive, optical interrogation method can provide real-time, in-line assessment of the manufacturing process, facilitating the generation of a cell product with enhanced function and therapeutic efficacy.

Image courtesy of Melissa Skala

 

Citations/IP:

Development Team:

  • Melissa Skala, PhD (mskala@morgridge.org)     The Skala Laboratory
  • Amani Gillette, PhD (agillette@wisc.edu)
  • Andrea Schiefelbein (aschiefelbein@morgridge.org)
  • Emmanuel Contreras Guzman (econtrerasguzman@morgridge.org)
  • Dan Pham (dlpham@wisc.edu)
  • IIT: Prin Sirithanawuth

Cancer immunotherapy via intra-tumoral delivery

To overcome the hurdle of biologics instability and effective controlled release profiles, UW investigators have developed a nanostructured mineral material to both stabilize biologics against extreme external stressors, such as proteases, as well as provide tunable degradation kinetics for sustained therapeutic release. Applied to intertumoral cytokine delivery, the mineralized microparticle delivery platform substantially expands the utility of immunotherapy by providing a single vehicle compatible with custom functionalization across numerous therapeutic biomolecules, while also providing significant improvements in in vivo therapeutic stability.

Image courtesy of William Murphy

 

Citations/IP:

Development Team:

  • Bill Murphy, PhD (wlmurphy@wisc.edu)     The Murphy Laboratory
  • Jae Sung Lee, PhD (lee283@wisc.edu)
  • IIT: Joshua Choe

Multicell conjugates for antigen-specific T cell responses

Born of research into how innate T lymphocytes contribute to immune responses, and how these cells may be used therapeutically to treat or prevent disease, recent advances by UW innovators have identified a highly immunostimulatory complex of immune cells that shows considerable promise as a novel cancer immunotherapy. Translating this discovery into a readily-available treatment option is the focus of this new project.

Image from WARF Innovation Award Presentation

 

Development Team:

  • Jenny Gumperz, PhD (jegumperz@wisc.edu)     The Gumperz Laboratory
  • Dana Baiu, PhD (dcbaiu@wisc.edu)
  • IIT: Sophie Mancha, Liz Appelt

Novel non-viral CAR T therapy for treatment of solid sarcomas

Researchers at UW-Madison have employed novel CRISPR genome editing strategies to facilitate the flexible and scalable manufacture of clinically-relevant, high-quality Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cells. This non-viral approach to CAR T cell therapy has the potential to improve product consistency, eliminate reliance on animal-derived materials, and reduce the cost of this class of cutting-edge therapeutics.

Image courtesy of Kris Saha

Citations/IP:

Development Team:

Kris Saha, PhD (ksaha@wisc.edu)     The Saha Laboratory

Christian Capitini, MD (ccapitini@pediatrics.wisc.edu)     The Capitini Laboratory

Matthew Forsberg, PhD (mhforsberg@wisc.edu)

Lei Shi, PhD (lxs@medicine.wisc.edu)

Katie Mueller (kmueller22@wisc.edu)

Dan Cappabianca (dcappabianca@wisc.edu)

Lauren Sarko  (sarko@wisc.edu)

IIT: Laura Muehlbauer, Aris Magoulas, Sydney Heimer

 

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Scaffold technology for large scale tissue repair

Plant-derived scaffolds have significant potential to serve as effective, affordable, and scalable platforms for manufacture of tissue repair products. Adaptable and highly effective, these platforms leverage the microfeatures and vascular networks native to plant materials to facilitate the manufacture of complex engineered tissues. Researchers at UW-Madison are developing plant-derived tissue scaffolds as a means to treat complex wounds. These unique materials are also being examined for their potential to support in vitro culture of functional skeletal muscle tissue.

Photo Credit: Gianluca Fontana

 

Citations/IP:

 

Development Team

  • Hau Le, MD (leh@surgery.wisc.edu)
  • Bill Murphy, PhD (wlmurphy@wisc.edu)     The Murphy Laboratory
  • Sabrina Brounts, DVM, PhD (sabrina.brounts@wisc.edu)

 

Coated microcarriers for serum-free human cell manufacturing

To enable reliable, consistent, large scale cell culture necessary for advancing clinical assessment, and commercial availability of cell-based therapies researchers have engineered a first-in-the-field synthetic, chemically defined, and tailorable microparticle for commercial scale cell culture applications. The surface chemistry of the microparticles enables user-defined functionalization with growth factors, eliminating the need for xenogenic serum proteins, while supporting enzyme-free cell harvesting to preserve cell functionality and differentiation potential downstream of expansion, ideal of hMSC clinical applications.

Image courtesy of John Krutty

 

Citations/IP:

 

Development Team

Biomimetic grafts engineered for vascular reconstruction

UW researchers have developed biocompatible, antithrombogenic vascular grafts made of ePTFE with a confluent layer of immunoreaction-free endothelial cells to generate artificial small diameter blood vessels (SDBV). This breakthrough can serve as an alternative to autologous vascular grafts for patients with severe coronary artery disease where invasive procedures and insufficient graft availability preclude autologous vessel use. SDBV overcome the limitations of thrombogenicity and restenosis that would normally be associated with small-diameter vascular grafts, and enables a new therapeutic approach for cardiovascular disease treatment.

Image courtesy of Tom Turng

 

Citations/IP:

Development Team:

  • Lih-Sheng (Tom) Turng, PhD (turng@engr.wisc.edu)     The Turng Laboratory
  • Zhutong Li (kzli572@wisc.edu)
  • Stefanie Glas (sglas@wisc.edu)
  • Chenglong Yu (cyu256@wisc.edu)
  • IIT: Hannah Martin

Platform to develop human cells for neurodegenerative therapy

Capitalizing on advances in controlling human pluripotent stems cells, research groups at UW-Madison have developed fully defined, synthetic hydrogel scaffolds with modular chemistry to precisely direct cell differentiation. These scaffolds have been used to successfully derive 3D self-assembling, multicellular, biomimetic in vitro systems representing a transformative opportunity to develop personalized treatments ranging from new companion diagnostics technologies to in vitro synthesis of patient-derived cell therapies for neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative conditions.

Image courtesy of William Murphy

 

Citations/IP:

Development Team