Baton Rouge Business Report / August 1, 2006:

Cellular science
By Steve Clark , Business Report staff

Startup firm's cell reprogramming technology could revolutionize therapy for Alzheimer's and other diseases.

Louisiana's embryonic biotech scene, if it's ever going to evolve into anything, could use a few more like Ken Eilertsen.

The New Orleans native and Pennington Biomedical Research Center scientist could find work anywhere he wanted in the biotech field. But Eilertsen moved back to his home state from Wisconsin --in part, because there's so little in the way of biotech happening here, and he had an opportunity to do something about it.

Eilertsen hopes his research, which recently moved operations into the Louisiana Emerging Technology Center, will help Baton Rouge and the rest of the state catch up with other states that have long since figured out biotech is where it's at in terms of economic development.

"To develop a critical mass a few people have to start somewhere," Eilertsen says. "We had this opportunity, and it was very amenable to me being back down in South Louisiana ."

The "we" refers to Eilertsen's partnership with Chuck Oehler, NuPotential's president. The two had worked together for eight years when Eilertsen was with a Wisconsin livestock cloning company. The company was Oehler's client. His job was to track down federal funding for research, which he managed to the tune of almost $3 million.

Oehler had just landed another $1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health when Eilertsen took an appointment with Pennington. They were able to transfer that grant to form a new company in Baton Rouge so Eilertsen could continue his research. NuPotential was born and nurtured at Pennington before recently becoming the newest tenant at the LETC. At present, the company's research is funded primarily by federal grants.

NuPotential's technology is based on cell "reprogramming," changing one type of cell so it does the job of another--from fat cell to liver cell, for instance. Eilertsen says it won't eliminate the need for stem cells, much less quiet the commotion over embryonic stem cells, but could offer cell therapy medicine an extremely effective tool that it doesn't have now.

The company has one grant in the works, another in the pipeline, plus a pending business relationship with a firm called Primorigen Biosciences in Madison , Wis. That company has exclusive options on some of the spin-off products invented in the course of NuPotential's research into cell reprogramming technology. The plan is for Primorigen to commercialize those research products and pay fees and royalties to NuPotential. That's the company's short term goal. Longer term, Eilertsen and Oehler hope to be able to commercialize the cell reprogramming technology itself.

"The big ticket application for NuPotential is the actual reprogramming of the cell," Oehler says. "That's what the patent involves. It's taking any kind of a cell--a skin cell, a fat cell--and actually reverting it back to a state where you can take it forward into a completely new type of cell, like a brain cell or a liver cell."

That's important, since the cell therapy industry today lacks a sufficient supply of cells that can be used for therapeutic applications. Instead of having to rely on embryonic stem cells for cell therapy, NuPotential's technology someday could make it possible to use any type of cell for therapy. Another reason it's important is it would solve the problem of cell therapy patients having an adverse reaction when foreign cells are transplanted into them. With Eilertsen's method, the cells would come from the patients themselves.

The problem with existing methods of cell reprogramming, which involves something called nuclear transfer cloning, is that it's very hit-and-miss. That's why it's never been commercialized.

"When they cloned Dolly, I think they made 287 attempts with nuclear transfer before they were able to successfully reprogram a cell to result in a live birth," Oehler says. "From a commercial standpoint, you're sitting there waiting for the animal for nine months to figure out if you're successful or not; it isn't viable. The method Ken has developed should be able to overcome a lot that inefficiency. So it probably has a better shot of getting to commercial viability."

Also, according to Eilertsen, the company's research theoretically could also be useful in treating cancers through "epigenetic therapy," a field of growing interest that involves reprogramming cancer cells into something harmless.

While his research is potentially opening the door for another method besides embryonic stem cells for supplying cells to be used in therapy, Eilertsen won't go so far as to say his reprogramming method could be a substitute.

"I don't think we want to make that prediction," he says. "I don't think that's viable. We think all paths ultimately are going to merge to develop this general field."

Meanwhile, Eilertsen hopes NuPotential will "last forever." If not, he hopes other biotech firms will follow and help create the "density" needed for biotech to flourish in Louisiana .

The kinds of highly paid research jobs Louisiana needs to grow its biotech congregate as a matter of course in parts of the West Coast, the Northeast--even Wisconsin--because biotech is already established in those places. “Scientists gravitate in those directions because of colleagues and because of opportunities.” Oehler says.  “If your company goes down, you can go down the street and knock on 20 doors within a few blocks.  That’s a factor.  The types of things Louisiana’s trying to do in terms of creating some infrastructure and funding outlets, etc., are critical, because if you don’t have that, you’re not going to be competitive at all.  You’re not going to have a chance.”