A Letter from The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research

OVCR Annual ReportFiscal Year 2011Technology Management & Intellectual PropertyBear Cub FundDuring fiscal year 2011, WUSTL awarded six Bear Cub Fund grants totaling $240,000 tosupport innovative research projects that could be attractive for licensing by commercialentities or serve as the foundation for a start-up company.The grants were awarded to: Scott Hultgren, PhD, the Helen L. Stoever Professor ofMolecular Microbiology, and Bradley Ford, MD, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate; DavidHaslam, MD, associate professor of pediatrics and molecular microbiology; Enrique W.Izaguirre, PhD, assistant professor of radiation oncology and of biomedical engineering; KelleMoley, MD, the James Crane Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Daniel Moran, PhD,associate professor of biomedical engineering, and Matthew MacEwan, MD, PhD, a graduateresearch assistant in biomedical engineering; and Phillip Tarr, MD, Melvin E. CarnahanProfessor of Pediatrics.David Haslam is taking a novel approach to fighting Clostridium difficile infection, a severeintestinal illness that affects about 500,000 Americans annually. Rather than target the bacteria,he is focused on blocking the C. difficile toxins as a means to control the infection. Toxinsreleased by the bacterium are responsible for damage to intestinal cells and cause massiveinflammation. Haslam has identified small-molecule inhibitors of C. difficile toxins and willevaluate their effectiveness in animal models.Scott Hultgren and Bradley Ford are developing a new class of antibiotics that specifically targeturinary tract infections caused by the bacterium Escherchia coli. Recurrent and drug-resistantinfections caused by E. coli are a significant and increasing problem for women. Their researchhas suggested that new antibiotics called mannosides that target a bacterial component essentialto bladder adherence can prevent urinary tract infections caused by E. coli. They now plan toevaluate whether the drugs can cure an existing infection, circumvent antibiotic resistance andprevent recurrence in a mouse model of urinary tract infection.Enrique Izaguirre is developing a device to measure the actual dose of radiation delivered tocancer patients in “real time.” External-beam radiation therapy is used to treat about 50 percentof cancer patients in the United States. This imaging dosimeter would allow clinicians andmedical physicists to verify the radiation dose delivered to patients during the course oftreatment, enhancing the safety and accuracy of the therapy.Kelle Moley is investigating a new type of intrauterine device for contraception that does notrely on hormones to prevent pregnancy. IUDs currently on the market use forms of thehormones estrogen and progesterone to prevent pregnancy. But the hormones can causenumerous side effects, including breakthrough bleeding, heavy bleeding, headaches, nausea,weight gain and cardiovascular problems. Moley is investigating an IUD that releases aninhibitor of the pentose phosphate pathway. Activating this pathway is necessary for pregnancyto occur. Two non-hormonal inhibitors of the pathway will be evaluated as contraceptives inanimal models, and the researchers also plan to identify additional inhibitors of the pathway.51