Innovation and Entrepreneurship from CBC Faculty

By Jeffrey Pyun & Laura Silva

CBC is dedicated to innovation, discovery, and entrepreneurship in the chemical sciences. The department has a long history of chemical discovery and industrial translation across numerous disciplines in medicinal chemistry, drug delivery, analytical instrumentation, bioanalytical services and materials science, carried out in close partnership with Tech Launch Arizona (TLA), the technology commercialization office at the University of Arizona.

These activities are part of a significant push by the State of Arizona and the University to bolster the technology sector of the Arizona economy by investment in the R&D translation, along with different approaches taken thus far to advance the fundamental research invented at the University into the marketplace.

The work of Prof. Victor Hruby is an excellent testament to this tradition, as over the span of his 50-year career he has made important contributions to the creation and study of peptide hormones and neurotransmitters that affect pain management, disease, and human behavior. Intellectual property (IP) created in the Hruby laboratory from the 1970s and ’80s was then licensed to Selectide Corporation, which Victor co-founded. Selectide was subsequently acquired by Sanofi Aventis, a multi-billion dollar, multi-national pharmaceutical company.

The College of Science has worked closely with Laura Silva since 2018 as its embedded TLA senior licensing manager; and she has been a tremendous partner for the entrepreneurial faculty of CBC. Since 2013, CBC has led the way

with over 335 new invention disclosures, 433 patent applications, and 73

patents issued, making it a campus-wide leader for new IP creation. Even more striking have been the 58

licenses and option agree-

Laura Silva, CBC’s ments made embedded TLA senior with the private licensing manager sector, along with the creation of over 10 startup companies within the past decade. This incredible output of IP and commercialization point to the success of the CBC-TLA partnership, which continues to enhance the research enterprise of our department. Here, we briefly present the efforts of four CBC faculty currently working with TLA to translate their research into the marketplace.

Photo credit: Paul Tumarkin

Professor Robin Polt was trained as

a synthetic organic chemist and is an internationally recognized carbohydrate and peptide researcher, expert in the area of drug discovery. He has focused his efforts on the synthesis and study

of molecules known to interact with

biological membranes. These studies led to key insights that allowed him to convert peptide neurotransmitters, such as endorphin (c.f. chemicals formed in

Photo courtesy of Bio5 the brain that produce “runner’s high”), into glycopeptide drugs for the treatment of pain. Other brain peptides have given rise to new drugs for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as vascular dementia, a form of Alzheimer’s disease, which were licensed by ProNeurogen. Most recently, in collaboration with professors John Streicher (Pharmacology), M. Leandro Heien (CBC) and Torsten Falk (Neurology), Polt created the nexus for testing and development of glycopeptide drugs for the treatment of stroke, traumatic brain injury (TBI) and notably, for treatments to block the progress of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s disease. This team is working with TLA to launch a startup, called Teleport Pharmaceuticals, LLC, to develop new proprietary Teleport glycopeptide drugs for neuroprotection and other problem-specific glycopeptides solutions for the pharmaceutical industry.

Professor Jeanne Pemberton is a

renowned analytical chemist (e.g. ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry, Executive Editor of Analytical Chemistry, etc.). Jeanne is recognized widely for her contributions to analytical materials and interface science and more recently for her work in sugar-based amphiphiles. These materials are attractive non-toxic and biodegradable alternatives to classical nonionic and ionic surfactants which have emerging long-term concerns for the environment and bioaccumulation in living systems. This work began as a multi-PI collaboration with UA researchers through NSF-funded programs that have resulted in an extensive TLA-supported IP portfolio that was the foundation for her recent startup company, GlycoSurf. GlycoSurf is a specialty chemical company that manufactures green “bio-inspired” glycolipids for use in a diverse array of functional

materials and technologies. GlycoSurf was founded in 2013 by three pioneering University of Arizona researchers to promote and exploit the tailorability of performance and “green” attributes of these glycolipid materials in an increasingly exacting regulatory environment. GlycoSurf has raised over $2.5 M in small business grants from NSF, NIH, and DOE and is in discussions with several potential industrial partners for support of GlycoSurf’s rare earth element and uranium harvesting technologies and development of GlycoSurf’s cosmetics additives. Jeanne also has developed a new class of sugar-based, bio-renewable room-temperature ionic liquids called Glyonic Liquids that have potential applications in electrochemical devices and gas separations.

Image courtesy of Thomas Gianetti

Jeanne Pemberton

Professor Thomas Gianetti, recently

named a Cottrell Scholar (see page 16), joined CBC in 2017 as an Assistant Professor working in the areas of organometallics, physical organic chemistry and catalysis broadly defined. In the course of developing a new ligand family for coordination chemistry, Thomas developed a new class of functional and modular organic materials based on highly stable helical and planar carbenium cations. These organic carbenium ions were developed into a platform system for photocatalysis, electrochemical energy, and Lewis acidic reagents for synthetic transformations. Of particular interest was the use of these materials as soluble electroactive electrolytes in Redox Flow Batteries (RFBs), for long duration energy storage applications beyond that which Li-ion batteries can economically achieve. More recently, the Gianetti group received industrial support to further develop their technology from Salt River Project, one of the major electrical utility companies in the state of Arizona.

Photo courtesy of Thomas Gianetti Carbenium for battery technology

Professor Craig Aspinwall is a bio-

analytical chemist internationally recognized for his development of biomimetic and biofunctionalized sensor strategies that allow detection of key signaling components, while also proving useful for other key bioanalyses including drug discovery and clinical diagnostics. Craig has earned several high-profile distinctions, which include the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Award for Young Investigators in Separations Sciences. He also serves as the Department Head of CBC, a position that he assumed in Summer 2021. The Aspinwall group has developed a hybrid material nanoparticle platform that offers a tunable interior environment along with modular surface functionalization to directly detect radioisotopes in a variety of aqueous biological milieus, which is challenging with conventional radioisotope detection schemes. Craig’s start-up Scintillation Nanotechnologies licensed the IP from the University in June 2019 and began full-scale operations in June 2020. The new company already has been successful as noted by the prestigious Flinn Foundation Bioscience Entrepreneurship Award in 2021, selection to the National NSF I-Corps program, and the ongoing federal research funding in the form of Phase-1 SBIR awards from both the NSF and NIH. The company began commercial sales in August 2021, making it the first-to-market company for nanomaterial scintillators for b-emitter detection.

Clearly, the investment and sustainable infrastructure to promote IP creation, patenting, and licensing now in place at the University of Arizona has positioned CBC well to continue to excel in these areas. However, we need more feedback, advice, and mentoring from our distinguished alumni! If you are interested in contributing to or learning more about CBC faculty research and entrepreneurial efforts, please let us know. We are always in need of experienced mentors from the private sector and government.

Photo courtesy of Craig Aspinwall

Craig Aspinwall