CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & NEW ORLEANS – (BUSINESS WIRE) – Harvard University has granted biotechnology company Obatala Sciences an exclusive license to commercialize innovations that enable the study of human adipose tissue in vitro. The Harvard Office of Technology Development and Obatala, which manufactures stem cell and hydrogel products to enable the discovery of next generation therapeutics, announced the agreement today.
Obatala Sciences operates in the organ-on-a-chip, or microphysiological systems industry, a rapidly growing scientific area that enables pharmaceutical companies to better model human response to therapies compared to traditional laboratory approaches. Licensed Harvard technology, an Adipose-on-a-Chip, provides a method of obtaining adult-sized adipose tissue cells for in vitro studies, and enables the testing of weight loss and cancer therapeutics without the need for animal testing. The fat chips can react to hunger and simulated meals and show an important hormonal activity, which is a characteristic of fat as a functional organ. This breakthrough technology offers a more accurate and dynamic model of human tissue in its diseased state compared to traditional two-dimensional culture.
The fat chips were inspired by researchers led by Kit Parker, PhD, the Tarr Family Professor of Bioengineering and Applied Physics at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and Associate Faculty Member of the Harvard Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering developed. Parker’s laboratory at Harvard SEAS developed and demonstrated novel methods for cultivating human fat cells to model a disease state in vitro. The results were published, for example, in the journal Lab on a Chip (2020). The global license agreement with Harvard enables Obatala to make the technology widely available to researchers in drug discovery and research and development.
As an important part of its mission, Obatala is promoting diversity in clinical research with the aim of accelerating the development of better therapies for diseases such as obesity, diabetes and cancer that disproportionately affect minorities. The company has grown rapidly to build a robust pipeline of stem cells, unique human-derived hydrogels, and media products that can be combined to mimic tissues from patients of specific populations.
“We are excited to expand access to Harvard’s transformative research tools that can help accelerate the research and discovery of better treatments for patients who have traditionally been excluded from clinical trials and who need them most,” said the CEO from Obatala Sciences Trivia Frazier, PhD, MBA. “Fettchip technology provides us with another important tool to promote diversity in research and improve outcomes for all patients. Organ-on-a-chip technology is revolutionary and can forever change the way we approach drug discovery around the world. ”
“I am pleased with the translation capability that Obatala’s license provides for these technologies developed in the Disease Biophysics Group at Harvard,” said Parker. “Trivia and I have been talking for almost a year now and share a vision of how organs on chips can enable innovations in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries and how spin-off technologies themselves represent new therapeutic possibilities. I hope that my laboratory’s innovations in tissue engineering can result in many powerful uses of synthetic fat, including these efforts to accelerate the development of better treatments for disease. ”
Frazier, a native of New Orleans, said Obatala will be the first New Orleans-based life science company to be led by an African American. To date, Obatala has received more than $ 2 million in federal funding to help commercialize its hydrogels and media products, and made history as the first women-owned company to raise over $ 1 million in institutional funding to build a biotechnology company raised in Louisiana.
The licensing agreement with Harvard, Frazier said, will help Obatala expand its offering of microphysiological systems that enable biomedical researchers to mimic various tissues throughout the human body. In return for the license, the university has received a stake in the company and is entitled to receive license fees for the resulting products. The license agreement also contains global access rules, in line with Harvard’s longstanding commitment to promoting equal access to technologies of significant public health in developing countries.
Via the Harvard Office of Technology Development
The Harvard Office of Technology Development (OTD) promotes the common good by promoting innovation and turning new Harvard University inventions into useful products that are available and useful to society. Our integrated approach to technology development includes sponsored research and corporate alliances, intellectual property management, and technology commercialization through the creation and licensing of ventures. More than 70 startups have commercialized Harvard technologies in the past 5 years, raising more than $ 2.5 billion in funding. To further close the development gap between science and industry, Harvard OTD manages the Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator and the Physical Sciences & Engineering Accelerator. Further information can be found at https://otd.harvard.edu.
About Obatala Sciences
Obatala Sciences was founded in 2017 with the goal of advancing research in obesity, diabetes, and regenerative medicine. Obatala Sciences is a biotechnology company providing research products and services to scientists in the medical industry and academia. Obatala prides itself on making high quality products that help researchers find better therapies for diseases that seriously affect the human population. Obatala is named after the West African deity commissioned to shape the human body. Co-founded and headed by a New Orleans African American woman, Obatala Sciences aims to create more accurate models of human tissue, starting with its building blocks: cells. More information is available at ObatalaSciences.com.
