Log in
Laser eye surgery is one of the most performed and successful types of surgery in the world. King's College London (KCL) researchers have been intimately involved in the development and improvement of techniques for both surgery and after-care to provide optimal results for the tens of millions of patients who undergo this type of treatment. KCL work is used by the world-penetrating companies Zeiss and Avedro to show evidence of the development of their latest techniques such as ReLEx and corneal cross-linking and by guidelines both in the UK (NICE) and abroad (the American Academy of Ophthalmology) to provide information on the long-term benefits and side-effects of laser eye surgery.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) presents society with one of its biggest challenges, yet despite the investment of billions of dollars there are only two classes of drug approved that have minimal benefit in patients. Scientists at King's College London have implicated dysregulation of retinoid signalling as an early feature of the disease and identified the retinoic acid receptor (RAR) family as an attractive drug target. They have gone on to design and patent protect novel orally available RARα selective agonists and demonstrated that they have the potential to restore many of the deficits reported in AD patients. Advent Venture Partners has provided funds to establish a new UK biotechnology company, CoCo Therapeutics Ltd, in partnership with the Wellcome Trust and KCL, to progress this KCL research into the development of a new treatment for AD.
Neurons in the central nervous system do not normally regenerate following injury, due in part to the presence of `inhibitory' molecules that actively prevent the growth and/or collateral sprouting of axons. King's College London scientists identified myelin associated glycoprotein (MAG) as the first myelin inhibitory molecule and demonstrated that inhibition of MAG function with a monoclonal antibody promotes axonal regeneration. They have gone on to promote MAG and its receptor (called the NgR1) as druggable therapeutic targets. Their discovery has led the UK's largest pharmaceutical company — GlaxoSmithKline — to develop monoclonal antibodies to MAG and a second myelin inhibitor as clinical drug candidates. The anti-MAG therapeutic successfully completed Phase I and II clinical trials in humans for stroke during 2008-2013.
Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is used to treat kidney failure in 250,000 individuals worldwide, a figure growing at 20% per annum in developing economies. Critical to this therapy is the removal of adequate salt, water and uraemic toxins by the peritoneal membrane. Our research has shown how variability in peritoneal membrane function impacts on clinical outcomes, how the treatment itself affects this function over time and how the design of dialysis solutions can improve membrane performance. This knowledge has informed changes in dialysis prescription practice and fluid design contributing to the sustained improvement in patient outcomes observed over the last 20 years.
There a great need to develop novel drugs to treat pain and in particular chronic pain. Scientists at King's College London (KCL) identified nerve growth factor (NGF) as an important mediator of persistent pain and validated it as a therapeutic target by demonstrating the beneficial effects of neutralising its activity using biological reagents in a number of animal models. The KCL team collaborated closely with the scientists at Genentech who went on to develop a neutralising antibody to NGF for the treatment of pain. This drug has been found to exhibit unprecedented efficacy in phase III trials in man and is currently being considered for registration. Their discovery has also led to several other major pharmaceutical companies initiating drug discovery programs in this area and has contributed to the subject area of pain management.
Fundamental to effective treatment of diabetes is the understanding of complex mechanisms regulating the function and demise of insulin-secreting pancreatic beta-cells. Inherent limitations relating to pancreatic beta-cell supply coupled with short functional life in culture prompted the challenge to establish model clonal human beta-cells. Ulster exploited an innovative approach to first establish clonal rodent beta-cells. Further development of our novel technology resulted in the generation, patent protection, and commercialisation of world-first electrofusion-derived functional human beta-cells. Our unique and valuable beta-cell lines have been licensed to multi-national pharmaceutical companies for diabetes drug development and further commercialised by sales through ECACC (now Public Health England) to directly impact on both bio-industry and the international research community by providing a limitless supply of high quality model beta-cells for translational research and diabetes drug development.
The cell adhesion molecule N-cadherin has been shown to be required for the survival of cancer cells, their metastasis and the formation of new blood vessels in solid tumours, however, cell adhesion molecules like N-cadherin were generally not considered to be "druggable." Scientists at King's College London have contributed to the development of a "peptide-pipeline" of novel N-cadherin antagonists, including the cyclic HAV peptide (N-Ac-CHAVC-NH2), also now known as Exherin and/or ADH-1, as a "first-in-class" N-cadherin antagonist. This compound was granted FDA organ drug designation for Melanoma in 2008 and successfully completed a number of phase I and II clinical trials, with an additional clinical trial currently recruiting. The demonstration that N-cadherin peptides can be used to treat cancer has changed the perception of what is possible and opened up new clinical and commercial opportunities.