Technologies

Background

Autophagy is an intracellular process that removes cellular waste, maintains cellular health, and regulates inflammation. Autophagic dysfunction can lead to excessive inflammation which causes devastating diseases including cancer, neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. Huntington disease), and autoimmune diseases (e.g. diabetes mellitus). These lethal diseases impact millions of people each year. Therapeutic regimes for these diseases center on addressing autophagic dysfunction by inducing selective autophagy through various mechanisms.

The process by which autophagy machinery operates has been identified and progress made in identifying how autophagy recognizes its cargo. However, research surrounding autophagic receptors which initiate the pathway still lags. There is a need for therapeutic options, to treat inflammatory or autophagy related diseases, which are capable of precisely activating and modulating autophagy.

Technology Description

Researchers at the University of New Mexico have discovered that IRGM, a protein within a distinctly human gene, which confers risk for inflammatory diseases, affects key autophagy regulators. With the use of precision autophagy modulators, such as interferon gamma (IFN-gamma), pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN), and tripartite motif (TRIM), new treatments for inflammatory and autophagy related disease can be developed.

About STC.UNM

As the technology-transfer and economic-development organization for the University of New Mexico, STC.UNM protects and commercializes technologies developed at the University of New Mexico (UNM) by filing patents and copyrights and transferring the technologies to the marketplace. We connect the business communication (companies, entrepreneurs and investors) to these UNM technologies for licensing opportunities and the creation of startup companies. Visit www.stc.unm.edu.