The Center for Technology Licensing (CTL) is Cornell University's technology transfer office. We manage technology for Cornell's Ithaca campus, Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell Tech, and Cornell AgriTech in Geneva.

Therapies to treat COVID-19

August 6, 2020



Invention Summary

Drug candidates to treat COVID-19 and a high throughput drug screening platform.

Technology Overview

The current COVID-19 pandemic has affected over 6 million people worldwide, has resulted in nearly 400,000 deaths, and is having a profound effect on the US and global economy. At present, no known therapies exist to prevent or treat COVID-19. Our understanding of the disease and the search for drug candidates are limited by the lack of appropriate disease models for drug screening. The COVID-19 disease is caused by a novel coronavirus SARS-Cov-2, which requires ACE2 receptors expressed in target tissues in order to enter the cells. The pulmonary system is the most vulnerable target organ for COVID-19. The invention identifies 4 FDA-approved generic compounds as inhibitory to viral entry in lung organoids and describes their novel use against COVID-19. This invention also describes the novel high throughput drug screening platform for COVID-19 on the basis of human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived lung organoids. hPSC-derived lung organoids express ACE2, are permissive to SARS-Cov-2 infection, and phenocopy COVID-19 disease when infected with SARS-Cov-2.

Potential Applications

  • Novel use of FDA-approved generic drugs to treat COVID-19.
  • Novel disease model and high throughput drug screening platform for COVID-19 drug candidates.

Advantages

  • Human lung organoids are more physiologically relevant for developing and screening COVID-19 therapeutics than currently used models including cell cultures and transgenic animals.

Publications

Licensing Contact


Dan-Oscar Antson
(646) 962-7042
da429@cornell.edu

Inventors

  • Shuibing Chen
  • Todd Evans
  • Xiaochua Duan
  • Yuling Han
  • Liuliu Yang
  • Lewis C. Cantley
  • Huanhuan Joyce Chen
  • Robert Schwartz
  • Tomer Yaron

Patents

  • Filed