The German company Euroimmun AG has acquired the rights of a patent for a technology developed by the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, University of Barcelona (UB), the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) and the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA). Dr. Francesc Graus, head of Neurology at the Clinic and leader of the IDIBAPS team Clinical and Experimental Neuroimmunology, is the principal inventor of the patent, and Dr. Josep Dalmau, ICREA researcher leading the IDIBAPS group Autoimmunity Against Synaptic Antigens, has also collaborated. Dr. Dalmau is an international reference in the study of neurology and psychiatry and in the past 7 years has identified 8 autoimmune diseases affecting the brain.
Lancet Neurology published last April the results now protected by the patent just licensed. Researchers identified the presence of an antibody against a neuronal protein, IgLON5, responsible for a neurodegenerative process linked to the autoimmune process that causes sleep disorders. The development of this technology will diagnose neurodegenerative disease-related sleep disturbances unknown until know, and suggests the possibility of controlling, in the future, inflammatory processes responsible for neurodegeneration in these patients.
EUROIMMUN AG
EUROIMMUN produces reagents for medical laboratories diagnostics. It is focused on test systems for antibodies in patient serum allowing the diagnosis of autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases and allergies. Test methods are based on indirect immunofluorescence, ELISA, various blot techniques (Western blot, EUROASSAY, EUROLINE, EUROLINE-WB) and molecular biology techniques. The company has patented tests worldwide and is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of medical laboratory diagnostics.
Office of Innovation Management at the Clínic Foundation
The Office of Innovation Management at the Clinic Foundation is the knowledge transfer office of the Hospital Clínic and its affiliated institutes: IDIBAPS and CRESIB. The office ensures that research results reach the society, through the creation of new knowledge-based companies, patent licensing, or through contracts with companies and institutions to develop collaborative projects with the aim of transferring technology.
Article reference:
Lidia Sabater, Carles Gaig, Ellen Gelpi, Luis Bataller, Jan Lewerenz, Estefanía Torres-Vega, Angeles Contreras, Bruno Giometto, Yaroslau Compta, Cristina Embid, Isabel Vilaseca, Alex Iranzo, Joan Santamaría, Josep Dalmau, Francesc Graus. A novel non-rapid-eye movement and rapid-eye-movement parasomnia with sleep breathing disorder associated with antibodies to IgLON5: a case series, characterisation of the antigen, and post-mortem study. The Lancet Neurology, Early Online Publication, 3 April 2014. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(14)70051-1