NZ innovation in anti-cancer push

AUT University scientist Professor Stephen Henry. Photo / Supplied

Potentially lucrative deal puts technology devised by AUT scientist at heart of personalised treatments

A Kiwi scientist is behind technology that could help a major pharmaceutical company make a remarkable cancer breakthrough.

UK-headquartered Agalimmune yesterday said cutting-edge technology pioneered by Auckland University of Technology scientist Professor Steve Henry would play a major role in its innovative immunotherapies for personalised cancer treatments.

Under the deal, the AUT spin-out Kode Biotech stands to receive up to $44 million in development and sales milestones, with royalties potentially bringing in tens of millions more dollars each year.

But more importantly, it could become the key to a promising way to combat cancer.

The beauty of Professor Henry's technology is it allows scientists to manipulate biological surfaces, or biosurfaces, which are the outside layers on anything alive and are used by cells, viruses and bugs to communicate with each other and their environment.

The innovation is essentially a biological "paint" containing synthetic components directing the cells to undertake tasks, or guide them somewhere specific.

Under the licence, the Kode molecules will be used to biologically label the outside of one cancerous tumour, before it teaches the body's immune system to recognise and kill all the remaining tumours.

"If this technology is clinically successful it will be expected to have a substantial impact on the treatment of a range of solid cancers," Professor Henry said.

Agalimmune was almost at the stage of human clinical trials.

"It is exciting for us to be part in what may be a very promising anti-cancer therapy and it is great to see our investment over many years in Kode Technology being recognised in the development of more new products."

The other roles for his innovation included detecting antibodies in blood that may harm an unborn baby, enabling new virus tests for the mass screening of epidemic outbreaks, providing a kind of "invisible ink" for the anti-counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals, and targeted drug delivery.

'Paint' opens possibilities

Professor Steve Henry likens the innovation he pioneered to a kind of paint - only it's a bit more special than your average bucket of Dulux.

Put simply, the biological "paint" he and his colleagues created could add virtually any biological or non-biological material to almost any living or synthetic surface in just minutes. All that was required, he said, was to contact a cell, virus or surface with a solution containing the Kode molecules, and they could spontaneously self-insert, attach or assemble on the surface.

Users could have total control over the amount of material they wanted applied to a surface, and because the constructs dissolved in water and were biologically harmless, they could be used to modify living cells or creatures. It took just seconds to modify a synthetic surface and less than an hour for a live surface.

In some instances, it could be used instead of genetic engineering.

Possibilities included harnessing cells to attack tumours, detecting antibodies in blood that might harm an unborn baby, or creating drug delivery particles that could be surface-modified to go to the right place in the body.