BioTherapeutics seeks to meet new medical needs

BLACKSBURG, Va., December 05, 2008 – Victims of diabetes and other common related illnesses may soon have access to new therapies without all of the crippling side effects. BioTherapeutics Inc. is working to develop nutritional interventions against a variety of chronic inflammatory and infectious diseases.

One of Virginia Tech’s own associate professors, Josep Bassaganya-Riera, founded the company. After spending many years at Iowa State University, Bassaganya-Riera came to Tech in 2003, and began work with BioTherapeutics in 2007. His work is renowned by many of his peers, including many licensing associates here at Tech.

“I find it exciting to see a VT inventor with the entrepreneurial drive and vision to get a new venture off the ground,” said Jackie Reed, an associate for Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties. “I am confident that BioTherapeutics has what life-science investors will be looking for.”

Bassaganya-Riera explained that the idea for the company originated from findings on abscisic acid paired with the newly surfaced realization that this could be “just the tip of the iceberg.”

“We discovered a naturally occurring, bioactive compound capable of improving diabetes and decreasing inflammation,” Bassaganya-Riera said.

BioTherapeutics has been developed from work conducted by the Nutritional Immunology Group, led by Bassaganya-Riera, at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute and Virginia Tech’s department of human nutrition, foods and exercise. Barry Whyte is the strategic and research communications officer at VBI.

“Part of our mandate is to support the transfer of technology and competencies from the academic to the private sector,” Whyte said. “The spin-off of BioTherapeutic from Virginia Tech is a good example of one of the innovative ways that we are looking at to fill the commercialization gap and address some of society’s pressing unmet medical needs.”

“In academia, we have our role as educators and researches, but first and foremost, we have to solve important problems in society,” Bassaganya-Riera said. “The mission of this company is to improve human health and well-being by discovering new nutraceuticals that will battle chronic inflammatory and infectious diseases.”

People who suffer from diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases could see some relief through advances by BioTherapeutics. The company wants to expand upon its research by pursuing innovative techniques and ideas using naturally occurring compounds that have been proven by clinical and laboratory research to treat diseases.

Many of the technologies used by the company have shown effectiveness in mouse studies and are linked to chronic inflammatory/infectious disease prevention and treatment. From a developmental standpoint, nutraceuticals can modulate the function of certain conserved proteins that can impact immune responses. BioTherapeutics wants to take advantage of these properties of nutraceuticals and research how they can be used to solve pressing medical needs.

“We want to tap into nature, identify the plant-derived compounds that activate a protein called peroxisome-proliferator activated receptor gamma and thereby decrease inflammation,” Bassaganya-Riera said. “This is all part of BioTherapeutics’ mission. We should be able to improve diseases, both chronic and other infections, without the significant side effects that synthetic drugs have.”

Bassaganya-Riera spoke extensively about the effects that obesity-related inflammation has on type II diabetes, which typically comes with age. Common drugs such as Avandia are popular for treatment, which activate a PPR Gamma, but also have significant side effects.

“Low-grade chronic inflammation is very much linked to obesity,” Bassaganya-Riera said. “We found that the plant hormone abscisic acid, a newly discovered naturally occurring agonist of PPAR gamma, decreased inflammation and improved diabetes significantly with no side effects.”

According to many researchers, an influenza epidemic is forecasted for the coming years. BioTherapeutics is also working on the development of immune modulatory compounds and antivirals. This will hopefully allow individuals to be able to react against the virus, while more importantly withstanding the initial response.

“Another one of our goals is to develop nutraceuticals that improve vaccine efficacy,” Bassaganya-Riera said. “For instance, during an influenza virus epidemic we want to minimize inflammation in the lungs and increase antiviral immune responses. This could be achieved with the right combination of naturally occurring immune modulators.”

Little changes in everyday life, more specifically in diet, can help decrease the likelihood of type II diabetes and other chronic inflammatory diseases.

“Diet and exercise are important, but diet is more broad than just decreasing calories,” Bassaganya-Riera said. “Eating good quality food and making sure you’re exposed to a balanced diet in terms of milk, cereal, vegetables and concentrations of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants are important.”

“Students should try to be as successful as possible—work hard, and try to make a difference in society,” Bassaganya-Riera said. “It’s not only what we eat or our health, but how we contribute in a meaningful way to making a better society.”

About NIMML

The NIMML Institute is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit public charity foundation focused on a transdisciplinary, team-science approach to precision medicine at the interface of immunology, inflammation, and metabolism. The NIMML Institute team has led numerous large-scale transdisciplinary projects and is dedicated to solving important societal problems by combining the expertise of immunologists, computational biologists, toxicologists, modelers, translational researchers, and molecular biologists. The Institute is headquartered in Blacksburg, VA. For more information, please visit www.nimml.org or contact pio@nimml.org.