Symbiotix Biotherapies has entered into a license agreement with Harvard University. Under the agreement, Symbiotix gains access to a portfolio of intellectual property developed in the laboratory of Dennis Kasper, M.D., William Ellery Channing Professor of Medicine and Professor of Microbiology and Immunobiology at Harvard Medical School.

Drawing on aspects of Dr. Kasper’s earlier research at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Symbiotix developed Reglemers™, a new class of molecular therapeutics that modulate regulatory T cell (TREG) activity, providing a new therapeutic approach to protection against autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The license from Harvard now provides additional compositions and methods that may enable improvements to that approach.

“We are extraordinarily pleased to expand our extensive intellectual property portfolio with this license agreement,” said Nader Yaghoubi, M.D., Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Symbiotix. “Symbiotix has steadily built the leading intellectual property portfolio in the microbiome sector, which now includes license agreements with four academic institutions, and includes issued composition-of-matter patents protecting our lead program.”