The Phase 1 human clinical trials of Hyderabad-based vaccine maker Bharat Biotech’s intranasal Covid-19 vaccine, codenamed BBV154, have commenced at some of the selected sites that include Hyderabad and Nagpur.
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WashU Celebration of Inventors 2021
Join the WashU Office of Technology Management for this annual event honoring: 2020 Patent Awards New Faculty Startups — Caeli Vascular, Capella Imaging, Coordinate Medical Systems, DeepSight Technology, HSpeQ, Integro Theranostics & Percayai National Academy of Inventors Fellows & Senior Member — Randall Bateman, Richard Cote, Michael Diamond & Scott Hultgren Thursday, April 15, 20214:30 […]
Wugen Announces Exclusive License Agreement for their Memory Natural Killer (NK) Cell-based Therapy Program with Washington University in St. Louis (Links to an external site)

Wugen Inc., a biotechnology company developing novel, universal allogeneic cellular therapies, today announced that it has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Washington University in St. Louis, one of the world’s leading research institutions, for the development of Wugen’s Memory Natural Killer (NK) Cell program.
C2N Diagnostics has brought its Alzheimer’s blood test to market. Now it wants to expand in St. Louis and beyond. (Links to an external site)

St. Louis-based C2N Diagnostics has developed what it says is the first blood test to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease. Now it has plans to take the technology global.
Cote named a National Academy of Inventors senior member (Links to an external site)

Pathologist Richard J. Cote, MD, the Edward Mallinckrodt Professor and head of the Department of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been elected a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). A cancer specialist, Cote has developed tools for analyzing tumor cells and predicting disease progression and response to therapy.
No more needles? (Links to an external site)

Nearly pain-free microneedle patch can test for antibodies and more in the fluid between cells
Encodia closes $75M Series C Financing led by Northpond Ventures and Deerfield Management (Links to an external site)

Encodia is a WashU faculty startup. The company is developing revolutionary tools for large-scale protein analysis to enable breakthrough insights into biology and the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease.
Acute itching in eczema patients linked to environmental allergens (Links to an external site)

The discovery that acute itching in eczema is linked to exposure to allergens may help them avoid things that make them itch intensely, including animals, dust, mold or certain foods.
2020 Patents Awarded to WashU

Patent awardees will be honored at the annual WashU Celebration of Inventors on April 15, 2021 via Zoom.
Combo of blood tests could offer more accurate Alzheimer’s diagnostics, researchers say (Links to an external site)
Drs. Randall Bateman and David Holtzman, founders of C2N and neurology professors at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, recently explained their amyloid blood test to Fox News.
Bateman, Diamond, Hultgren named to National Academy of Inventors (Links to an external site)

Neurologist Randall J. Bateman, MD, virologist and immunologist Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, and microbiologist Scott Hultgren, PhD – all faculty members at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis – have been named fellows of the National Academy of Inventors, the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors.
Novel form of Alzheimer’s protein found in spinal fluid indicates stage of the disease (Links to an external site)

A novel form of an Alzheimer’s protein found in the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord indicates what stage of the disease a person is in, and tracks with tangles of tau protein in the brain, according to a study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Tau tangles […]
St. Louis-based Precision Virologics and India’s Biotech leader Bharat Biotech obtain rights to intranasal COVID-19 vaccine technology (Links to an external site)
Biotech startup Precision Virologics, which develops adenovirus-based vaccines in St. Louis, and Bharat Biotech, a manufacturing giant of vaccines, jointly obtained rights from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis for a novel chimp-adenovirus vaccine for COVID-19. Precision Virologics has optioned rights for USA, Europe, and Japan. Bharat has obtained a license for all other markets.
Washington University develops COVID-19 saliva test (Links to an external site)

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has developed a saliva-based test for COVID-19 that is faster and easier than the swab tests currently in use. The test could help simplify and expand the availability of COVID-19 diagnostic testing across broad populations.
Equalize — 2020 and Beyond (Links to an external site)
With this article, we wanted to articulate the need and history of Equalize 2020, the experiences of those involved, and our thoughts on where to take this effort next.
New WashU Faculty Startups

New Faculty Startups (FY July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020) Caeli VascularCapella ImagingCoordinate Medical SystemsDeepSight TechnologyHSpeQIntegro TheranosticsPercayai The new startups will be introduced at the annual WashU Celebration of Inventors on April 15, 2021 via Zoom.
Celebrating the newest National Academy of Inventors fellows
source.wustl.edu Washington University in St. Louis this year celebrates two new fellows of the National Academy of Inventors, the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors. The distinction recognizes their prolific and innovative work and their contributions, which have had tangible, positive impacts on society. The two new honorees are Jerome R. Cox Jr., […]
Equalize 2020 announced — a pitch competition & symposium (Links to an external site)

Equalize 2020 is a pitch competition and symposium designed to take national action around the disparity of women academic inventors forming university startups.
2019 WIT Symposium: Supporting WashU women innovators

More than 160 people — scientists, inventors, venture capitalists, startup CEOs, media and networking pros, and others — attended the Office of Technology Management’s Women in Innovation & Technology (WIT) Symposium Feb. 26. The annual event is aimed at closing the gender gap in invention disclosure and commercialization at Washington University in St. Louis. The […]
Boime, Covey named National Academy of Inventors senior members
Developmental biologists recognized for successes in developing therapeutics Developmental biologists Irving Boime, PhD, and Douglas Covey, PhD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, have been named senior members of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). They are being recognized for their success in patents, licensing and commercialization, and for producing “technologies that have brought, or […]
Washington University celebrates faculty inventors

Over the past three years, Washington University faculty patent filings through the Office of Technology Management (OTM) increased by more than 60 percent and 20 startups have been formed to license Washington University intellectual property. In 2017, 92 faculty inventors received an issued patent and, for the first time in the history of the office, it received […]
Gender parity in tech transfer
The theme of International Women’s Day this past March may have been “gender parity,” but at the rate things are going, women won’t file as many patents as men in a single calendar year until nearly 2100, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. But thanks to research from Washington University in St. Louis, published June 18 in Technology […]