
Richard Goldsby, PhD
CEO
Thomas B. Walton Professor of Biology Emeritus, Amherst College
Barbara Osborne, PhD
PI, Professor, UMass Amherst, Veterinary & Animal Science, Chair of SAB
Katherine Knight, PhD
PI, Professor, Chair of Microbiology and Immunology, Loyola University Chicago
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A Novel Cell-Based Therapy for Graft-Versus-Host Disease
HasenTech is focused on providing tools for preventing and treating Graft-Versus-Host Disease.
Graft versus host disease (GVHD) is an often lethal complication from allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation used as treatment for a variety of hematologic malignancies. GVHD results from an attack on host cells by alloreactive T cells of the donor. Standard prevention and treatment for GVHD is administration of broadly immunosuppressive drugs, which suppress alloreactive T cells. These treatments however, have as a side-effect, increased risk for infection.
The technology develops a protocol whereby an exopolysaccharide (EPS) purified from a commensal soil bacterium, Bacillus subtilis induces anti-inflammatory myeloid cells, which inhibit activation of T cells.