Bridges to Industry Program

Date: 

Wednesday, October 7, 2020, 5:30pm to 7:30pm

Location: 

Zoom
Bridges to Industry Program
Wednesday, October 7, 5:30 – 7:30pm
 
Agenda
 
A protein-based treatment for pancreatitis
Pamela Silver, Elliot T. and Onie H. Adams Professor of Biochemistry and Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School
Jeffrey Way, Lecturer, Laboratory for Systems Pharmacology and Dept. of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School
 
Pancreatitis is a painful, life-threatening condition that affects nearly 9 million people world-wide and kills over 100,000 people annually. Acute pancreatitis (AP) is the most frequent gastrointestinal cause of US hospitalizations (275,000 in the US in 2009 alone), and is lethal in 3-16% of cases. The treatment today is largely unchanged from 5 decades ago for pancreatitis not due to gallstones, focusing on fluids and pain management.
 
We have developed a protein-based treatment for pancreatitis based on inhibition of trypsin, which is thought to be the primary causative molecular target. We focused on pharmacokinetic issues as the primary problem area, based on previous clinical trials with known trypsin inhibitors. Our lead molecule is promising in preliminary animal experiments