We are thrilled that Dr Shimon Sakaguchi, distinguished Professor at Osaka University’s Immunology Frontier Research Center, is one of the winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of Treg cells and their vital role in promoting peripheral immune tolerance and suppressing autoimmunity.
The importance of this discovery cannot be understated. It has greatly advanced the understanding of the immune system globally and has been critical to the elucidation of many immune related diseases and the development of treatments. Understanding of the role of Treg cells within the immune system has brought about many innovations for modulating their activity (activation or suppression) in a wide range of diseases including autoimmune diseases and cancer.
Any disease that originates from normal cells behaving abnormally is traditionally hard to treat. This is particularly so for the immune system where a balance of the individual roles of immune cells is critical to health. The discovery by Shimon Sakaguchi, Mary E Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell of the role of Treg cells in providing immune tolerance has opened the door to methods of selectively modulating this tolerance and these are being translated into innovative ways of treating diseases.
Here at Mewburn Ellis we are delighted to be working on patent applications relating to this exciting technology and, in particular the innovations of Prof. Sakaguchi and his co-inventors at Osaka University and Shionogi. The Mewburn team is led by Chris Denison, assisted by Joanna Cripps, Rebecca Quiney and Sam Hart.
All our attorneys not only have a deep understanding of the technology but are passionate about obtaining IP rights which reflect the innovative contribution the technology makes to healthcare worldwide. We are very proud to be working with such amazing scientists and innovators. For more information, please visit: https://www.mewburn.com/antibodies-adcs-patent-advice.
Image: “T regulatory cells (red) interacting with antigen-presenting cells (blue)” by NIAID, licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
