UI Health Researchers Break New Ground in Treating Severe Diseases

Recently completed clinical trials led by Dr. Sandeep Jain of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences have demonstrated the viability of DNase therapies in treating moderate to severe dry eye disease (DED) or ocular graft versus host disease. The technology has been licensed by biotech company Neutrolis Inc. for a treatment utilizing DNase to target neutrophil extracellular Traps which contribute to DED. “Our work demonstrates that NETs have an underlying role in DED and I am delighted to be working in an advisory capacity with Neutrolis,” said Dr. Jain. “There is a need for new therapies that have the potential to redefine the standard of care for patients with moderate to severe dry eye disease.”

A research team led by Dr. Arnon Lavie, professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics, has redesigned a treatment for the most common pediatric leukemia to eliminate severe side effects such as blood clots and liver damage. Using protein engineering, the team designed a new form of the enzyme asparaginase, an enzyme that is approved clinically for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The researchers reported that the new compound successfully destroyed leukemia cells in mice without the side effects seen with asparaginase. The new treatment also shrank tumors in laboratory models of melanoma and liver cancer.

Dr. Mathew Mathew Thoppil, the Cedric W. Blazer Endowed Professor of Biomedical Sciences and co-director of the Regenerative Medicine and Disability Laboratory in Rockford, is developing biosensor technology to detect pancreatic cancer in its earlier, more treatable stages. The project, “Electrochemical, Nanoengineered and Intelligent Biosensor for the Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer (PancreaAlert),” will be the first to leverage a machine learning cloud-based model to predict pancreatic cancer risk based on detecting particular biomarkers in blood.