Sapience Therapeutics is developing drugs to fight two deadly forms of cancer.Epibone has technology to grow custom bone grafts from apatient’s stem cells.Lumiode specializes in ultra-bright displays for augmented reality and other applications.And Vidrovr has atool for searching video on the internet.These are just afew of the innovative startups using research from Columbia’s many laboratories and nurtured by Columbia Technology Ventures,sometimes known as CTV.“When faculty and graduate students come up with new scientific inventions—therapies,diagnostics,medical devices,robotics,clean energy,cyber security,almost any kind of science done at auniversity—it’s our role to work with them and help bring those inventions into the market to become products and services that save or improve people’s lives,”said Orin Herskowitz,CTV’s executive director and senior vice president for intellectual property and technology transfer.Columbia Technology Ventures was founded in 1982,shortly after Congress passed legislation mandating that universities retain title to ground-breaking research developed with federal funding,seek patents for those inventions and license those patents to industry and startups.Since Herskowitz came to Columbia in 2006,the tech ventures office has grown exponentially,helping to create 20 to 25 startups annually compared with five or six adecade ago.Each year it evaluates more than 350 innovations from faculty,students and researchers working in aColumbia lab for potential commercialization,including patents and licensing deals.Technology Ventures works with faculty across Columbia’s campuses to identify new scientific breakthroughs.Once they find an invention with significant commercial potential,the principal investigator is paired with aCTV licensing expert,who stays in touch to determine when the invention can be patented and licensed or presented to investors for astartup.Some researchers contact the tech ventures office with potential ideas.“It is atrue partnership between the academic research faculty,the investment community and our office,”said Ofra Weinberger,Columbia Technology Ventures’director of licensing.“We take on much of the brainstorming,the marketing,looking for the best partners and bringing in entrepreneurs so our faculty members and investigators can be better informed about the needs and pressures of the marketplace.”In addition to traditional licensing efforts,Columbia runs or co-runs five“lab-to-market accelerators”—three in life sciences,one in clean energy and another in media and communications technology—giving inventors access to industry mentors and some funding as they learn about starting acompany,pitching to investors and proving that their product works.The clean energy program is aNew York State-funded collaboration with Brookhaven National Laboratory,City University of New York,Cornell Tech,New York University and Stony Brook University.NYU and the City of New York are participants with Columbia in the media technology program. 查看详细>>

Researchers have found that inhibiting an enzyme in the liver significantly reduces triglyceride levels in mice.A team at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York studied how to lower the triglyceride fats that cells use as fuel.Their findinga were published Thursday in the journal Cell Metabolism.The fats are transported to cells through the bloodstream.When triglyceride levels are high,the particles are forced into cells lining the arteries.These cholesterol-laden plaques lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.Normal triglycerides are less than 150 milligrams per deciliter based on ablood test and the most effective treatment is weight loss with healthier eating habits and regular exercise,according to the Mayo Clinic.Drugs with statins are not effective in lowering triglyceride levels as they are with cholesterol.Previously,Utpal Pajvan,an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons,led ateam that found that inhibiting the enzyme with certain drugs improves blood sugar levels and insulin sensitivity,and reduces fat accumulation and inflammation in the liver.In new study,led by KyeongJin Kim,an associate research scientist at the school,found that inhibiting the enzyme also causes liver cells to pull triglycerides out of the bloodstream."We see this data as proof of principle that adrug that inhibits gamma secretase could be used to produce multiple benefits at once,"Pajvan said in anews release."This approach would be especially beneficial for people with type 2diabetes,who have insulin resistance and high blood sugars but often also have high levels of plasma triglycerides and fatty liver disease."Drugs that inhibit gamma secretase don‘t work to treat chronic diseases because they block the enzyme throughout the body and cause severe gastrointestinal side effects.So,the researchers worked with industry colleagues to develop an"antisense"molecule that preferentially blocks gamma secretase in the liver.That molecule reduced triglycerides and glucose in the blood without apparent side effects in mice.Pajvan expects it to take several years before the compound or asimilar drug can be tested on humans."Many people are looking at new ways to reduce triglycerides and the more possibilities we identify,the greater chance we have of ultimately succeeding,"Pajvani said. 查看详细>>

Gardeners and nature lovers have noticed that plants are flowering earlier every year—a phenomenon generally attributed to climate change.New findings by Columbia researchers,however,are among the first to show that adecline in biodiversity may also play arole,magnifying the impact of climate change not just when plants flower,but on entire ecosystems.“Biodiversity is an important component of all ecosystems,”said Amelia Wolf,a research scientist in Columbia’s Ecology,Evolution and Environmental Biology(E3B)department.“Plant and animal species are dependent on each other,and changes in biodiversity could have important consequences for the sustainability and functioning of ecosystems worldwide.”Plants,for instance,flower for the sole purpose of reproducing—creating seeds to grow the next generation—and many plants rely on pollinators such as insects or birds to help with that process,Wolf explained.“If aplant flowers before its pollinators are active,the plant species can’t reproduce or may produce fewer seeds,”she said.Insects,birds,humans or other animals that depend on those plant species for food and habitat could then also be affected,Wolf added.The timing of plant flowering is known to be influenced by nonliving aspects of an ecosystem,such as rising temperatures,and is widely regarded as a“fingerprint”of climate change.A warmer atmosphere affects soil temperature and water content.These variables,along with other parts of an ecosystem,trigger plants to mature and produce flowers—a critical stage in their reproductive cycle.While numerous studies have found that such nonliving aspects influence the timing of biological events in plants,Wolf’s study is among the first to investigate the impact of plant-to-plant interactions.Wolf and her two co-researchers,from the University of California,Santa Cruz and the United States Geological Survey Western Geographic Science Center,set out to see if adecline in biodiversity had any effect on phenology,or the study of how the biological world times natural events.They wanted to see if the loss of plant species would affect the timing of events such as flowering for neighboring species of plants.In 2007,the team set up an experimental field containing 16 different plant species in aCalifornia grassland.They created plots with varying numbers of species to see what effect diversity loss would have on the remaining plants,an experiment intended to mimic human impact on plant communities worldwide.Habitat destruction,invasive species,pollution,human overpopulation,over-harvesting,wildlife trade and general human consumption are major contributors to the enormous biodiversity loss that has earth scientists and experts gravely concerned,Wolf noted.As the researchers reduced plant diversity,they observed warmer ground temperatures and changes in the soil and flowering timing similar in magnitude to the impact of global warming alone.For each species that was removed,the remaining plants flowered,on average,about ahalf day earlier than they would in plots with the greatest diversity.The removal of two species resulted,on average,in plants flowering afull day earlier than they would otherwise,and so on.“This is not just about when tulips will reach full bloom,”Wolf said.“Biodiversity loss and the impact it has on plant phenology can impact an entire ecosystem.Plants and the communities in which they grow are interconnected and critically dependent on each other.” 查看详细>>