OMRF signs collaboration deal with GSK

The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF) has signed a collaboration agreement with GSK, one of the world’s leading health care companies, for the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapies to prevent organ damage and death caused by conditions such as acute pancreatitis, lung injury and trauma.

This collaboration is part of GSK’s “Discovery Partnerships with Academia” efforts. Launched in 2011, this unit is dedicated to bringing together the insight and creativity of leading academic scientists with GSK’s drug discovery expertise to develop innovative medicines.

Charles Esmon, Ph.D., and colleagues at OMRF discovered that when traumatic injuries occur, the body releases proteins called histones that can enter the bloodstream and begin to kill the lining of blood vessels, resulting in uncontrolled bleeding.

“When we realized that histones were so toxic, we

immediately went to work looking for a way to stop their destructive tendencies,” Esmon said.

Esmon and his OMRF research team created a series of experimental antibodies — pathogen-fighting proteins produced by the body’s immune system — that show promise for stopping this process, which can be fatal.

Under the collaboration agreement, Esmon and OMRF colleagues Florea Lupu, Ph.D., and Padmaja Mehta-D’Souza, Ph.D., will perform a series of preclinical tests and analytical procedures on the antibodies. GSK will then select lead candidates from those antibodies for potential clinical development by GSK scientists.