Loyola University of Chicago

University of Massachusetts

Katherine L Knight

Barbara A Osborne

Sara Jones

Robert Love

Rudolf Karl Braun

Furkan Ayaz

Makio Iwashima

Perianna Sethupathi

The invention relates to an exopolysaccharide (EPS), compositions comprising EPS and methods of use, including for treating and preventing disorders, such as inflammatory disorders.

Exopolysaccharide for inflammatory disease

Methods for generating and using omentum cells, and particularly stromal cells and/or omentum stem cells, in medical treatments such as tissue repair and regeneration to facilitate healing from traumatic injury to an abdominal organ, and immune modulation treatments such as suppression of immune responses and inflammation and prevention of tissue fibrosis. According to one aspect, a medical procedure is performed on a patient that involves harvesting omental tissue from the patient, and then transferring the omental tissue to an organ of the patient. At least a portion of the harvested omental tissue may be activated prior to transferring the omental tissue to the organ. Alternatively, the transferred omental tissue may comprise non-lymphoid cells isolated from the omentum tissue and obtained by homogenizing at least a portion of the harvested omental tissue. The invention also encompasses a medical procedure comprising the transfer of omental stem cells to a patient, and a procedure comprising in vitro activation of omental stem cells by T cells to enhance immunomodulatory functions of the omental stem cells.

Omentum as a source of stromal/stem cells and medical treatment using stromal/stem cells

Novel methods are provided for producing rabbit fusion partners for the production of specific binding proteins, particularly immunoglobulins. Nuclei of rabbit fertilized ova are microinjected with an oncogene to express specifically in lymphoid cells (i.e., lymphoid specific) and the embryos are then implanted in appropriate hosts. The newborns are maintained to sexual maturity and are either mated with rabbit hosts that developed from embryos that had been microinjected with a different lymphoid-specific oncogene or their fertilized eggs are microinjected with another oncogene specific for lymphoid cells. The immortalized lymphoid cells that develop in these animals may be genetically altered and used as fusion partners to produce rabbit hybridomas for the production of monoclonal antibodies.

Immortalized rabbit hybridoma fusion partner

Growing community of inventors

Chicago, IL, United States of America

Katherine L Knight