SixOne Solutions and CU sign exclusive license agreement to develop new cancer treatment

By: InnovatioNews Friday November 22, 2013 0 comments Tags: Aurora, Ginny Orndorff, Heide Ford, Rui Zhao, SixOne Solutions

AURORA - SixOne Solutions and the University of Colorado have completed an exclusive license agreement that allows the company to develop new, targeted therapeutics for treating and preventing the spread of breast cancer with far fewer side effects than traditional chemotherapy, the two parties jointly announced.

A research team at the CU School of Medicine, led by Heide Ford and Rui Zhao, has identified two proteins - Six1 and Eya2 - that play key roles in the growth and spread of cancer cells.

The therapeutics developed by the Ford/Zhao group to inhibit the two proteins are expected to have minimal effects on healthy cells while specifically targeting cancer cells.

The two proteins are also active in many other types of cancers, including ovarian, cervical and pancreatic. It is anticipated that the inhibitors being commercialized by SixOne Solutions will be able to be combined with existing therapies, reducing the development of tumors that are resistant to treatment.

"New drug development is a long process, but we are doing all we can to move this exciting new approach into the clinic as soon as we can," said Ginny Orndorff, SixOne's CEO.

Ford, an associate professor of pharmacology, and Zhao, an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics, co-founded SixOne Solutions earlier this year to commercialize their research.