Queen's University

<p><strong>Overview</strong></p>
<p>Founded in 1841, Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario is one of Canada’s leading research-intensive institutions, combining quality and intensity in research with excellence in undergraduate and graduate education.</p>
<p>Research is a core component of the mission of Queen’s University. A member of the U15, a group of Canada’s leading research-intensive universities, Queen’s ranks highly in terms of research funding and research intensity amongst universities nationally.</p>
<p>Their commitment to research excellence is evident in the many exceptional national and international accolades awarded to their researchers, most recently Queen’s Professor Emeritus Dr. Arthur B. McDonald was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics – with co-recipient Takaaki Kajita of Japan – in Stockholm, Sweden.</p>
<p>This excellence, found across disciplines – from health care, the environment, materials, energy, law, economics, culture, and many others – attracts the best students, the best faculty, and the best collaborators from local and global communities, other institutions, government, and industry.</p>
<p>Through their diverse programs, Queen’s university promotes social innovation, fosters creative expression, and explores how societies work best. And it’s this culture of excellence that has made Queen’s one of Canada’s leading research universities.</p>
<p><strong>Queen’s Partnerships and Innovation</strong></p>
<p>The Queen’s Partnerships and Innovation (QPI) team supports the advancement of partnerships, research collaborations, and knowledge mobilization as well as innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development. The QPI team develops and facilitates partnerships with industry, governments, not-for-profit organizations, and other academic institutions to advance the research enterprise at Queen’s and the commercialization of inventions, and to strengthen the regional innovation ecosystem in Kingston and Eastern Ontario. </p>
<p>With support from external funding, the QPI team offers numerous services, resources and programs to support entrepreneurs, including those from Queen’s, and to accelerate the growth of startups and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within Kingston and Eastern Ontario. The team has transformed more than 1,000 invention disclosures into hundreds of technologies covered by at least one patent; additionally, the team has supported the founding and-or acceleration of hundreds of startups and SMEs in the Kingston region.</p>


<h1 id="background">Background</h1>
<p>Metastasis is the leading cause of cancer related deaths. During metastasis tumor cells degrade the basement membrane of blood vessels allowing cancer cells to enter blood vessels and spread to other tissues. Tissue invasion requires matrix metalloproteinase 14 (MMP14/MT1-MMP) which is linked to poor prognosis. More than 50 small molecule MMP inhibitors have failed in cancer clinical trials due to poor specificity and toxicity.</p>
<h1 id="technology-overview">Technology Overview</h1>
<p>Queen’s researchers have identified several novel synthetic MMP14 antibodies by phage display screening using the MMP14 extracellular domain (ECD). A lead antibody (Fab 3369) inhibits MMP14 protease activity both in vitro and in metastatic cancer cells. The human IgG1 form of this antibody was effective at limiting TNBC tumor growth and metastasis in mouse models and limiting tumor progression and metastasis. Affinity maturation of anti-MMP-14 antibodies is currently underway.</p>
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<li><img src="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/assets.in-part.com/technologies/figures/Y4ctuMTuQsSASzMRcbvC_Figure-1.png" alt="Figure 1" /></li>
<li><img src="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/assets.in-part.com/technologies/figures/njoAvDqfRHGLPpV48WgB_Figure-2.png" alt="Figure 2" /></li>
<li><img src="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/assets.in-part.com/technologies/figures/GPFiONQeGR0SArfbzgRA_Figure-3.png" alt="Figure 3" /></li>
<li><img src="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/assets.in-part.com/technologies/figures/c24fNFDT3u92EEiSBQxz_Figure-4.png" alt="Figure 4" /></li>
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<p>Publication Links</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5601659/">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5601659/</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fonc.2021.717606/full">Frontiers | Immune Infiltration of MMP14 in Pan Cancer and Its Prognostic Effect on Tumors | Oncology (frontiersin.org)</a></p>
<h1 id="benefits">Benefits</h1>
<p>This highly selective inhibitory antibody to MMP-14 overcomes the selectivity and toxicity issues of other small molecule inhibitors.</p>
<h1 id="applications">Applications</h1>
<p>MMP-14 has a role in several disease states including preeclampsia, urinary bladder cancer, ovarian cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, gastric cancer, epithelial skin cancers and fibrotic diseases.</p>
