Delta G files patents with potential to fight cancer; chronic fatigue
Cambridge-based start-up Delta G said today it has recently filed patents on a new class of molecules that might be effective in treating lung, colon and breast cancers and on a drug combination that might be able to treat chronic fatigue syndrome.
The company, founded by Professor William Bains (pictured) and built around the scientific ideas of Dr Aubrey de Grey at Cambridge University, specialises in applying new discoveries in the science of how and why we age, called biogerontology. It said it had discovered more about the metabolism of cells and what goes wrong as the cells age.
It received £130,000 funding from the Cambridge Challenge Fund, one of the Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds and managed by Cambridge Enterprise, and The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) in 2004. Cambridge Enterprise aids the commercialisation of intellectual property developed at the University of Cambridge.
The first patent, filed on 25th May, describes a new class of molecules with the potential to become a new type of cancer drug. Cancer cells use the energy they gain from metabolism abnormally. This is a difference that many scientists have tried to attack in the past. Delta G has evidence that its new understanding of exactly what is wrong with the metabolism of these cells has allowed its researchers to target them particularly effectively. The patent is the first of what is hoped will be a series on this approach to cancer treatment.
Professor Bains said the approach "is likely to be particularly suitable for late-stage lung, colon and breast cancers, which kill over 800,000 people a year in the West. A drug that offers a new approach to treat these patients would be of tremendous value.”
Chronic fatigue
The company has also been working on new a new treatment using a combination of drugs for treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which is suffered by about 1 in 400 people in the West. A patent on this was filed in February this year.
Currently the only effective treatment is a combination of graded exercise and cognitive behavioural therapy that typically takes months to years.
Dr Geraldine Rodgers, Technology Manager for Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds and a Director of DeltaG, said that patent protection was vital for turning ideas into products, so these were important steps forward for the company.
30th June 2006
