Rare pigs could provide researchers a more effective way to develop treatments for diabetes


West Lafayette, Indiana, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A unique breed of pig equipped with a heart that mimics a human’s heart and has a special genetic mutation could provide researchers and scientists the key to a cure for diabetes and related complications.

CorVus Biomedical LLC, a Purdue University- and Indiana University-related startup, aims to breed and sell Ossabaw miniature pigs to researchers around the country. The company was co-founded by Michael Sturek, professor and department chair of the IU School of Medicine Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology and professor in Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical EngineeringMouhamad Alloosh, an associate research professor, and James Byrd, a research technician, both in the IU School of Medicine’s Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, are company co-founders.

In 2002 Sturek and a team of researchers acquired 26 feral Ossabaw miniature pigs from Ossabaw Island, one of the Sea Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Georgia. The pigs have a natural propensity for obesity and developing pre-diabetes, which make them ideal for research purposes, Sturek said.

“Ossabaw pigs naturally developed the propensity to obesity and pre-diabetes as a survival mechanism to cope with periods of starvation on Ossabaw Island,” he said. “The pigs' form of pre-diabetes could reverse itself when the animals stopped gorging and started living lean again. We thought this genetic mutation and coping mechanism, and the pigs' heart, which mimics a human’s fantastically, could provide the key to a cure for diabetes and the terrible long-term complications like heart disease, in humans.”      

About 30 million people in the United States, or more than 9 percent of the total population, have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Additionally, more than 84 million Americans have pre-diabetes and approximately 30 percent of them will develop type 2 diabetes.

“In humans a few long-term complications that can occur from diabetes include blindness, heart disease, obesity, fatty liver and polycystic ovary syndrome. These pigs provide the opportunity to test different drugs and devices, and even new types of bariatric surgery, more relevant to humans,” Sturek said. “Ossabaws really are one of the most vital research specimens in the world to translate cures from basic lab research to humans.”

Sturek said other animals don’t provide the same research benefits.

“The Ossabaw pigs as we found them had never been touched by civilization, so they are at their purest pedigree. Other animals studied in biomedical research include mice; however, mice are so far removed from humanlike features that it’s hard to gauge effectiveness of a treatment in humans,” he said. “Ossabaw pigs can gain four times as much fat on the same calories than a normal farm pig. Normal farm pigs don’t have the ability to gain as much fat as Ossabaws or even develop diabetes. The miniature Ossabaws are much preferred for research because of their efficiencies of scale.”

CorVus Biomedical has contracts to sell the pigs to scientists in the next several weeks after the CorVus facility construction is completed.

“Right now we are the largest research and breeding colony of the Ossabaw pig in the world and we will expand further with our new facility,” Sturek said. “It’s important for us as a company to be able to produce these animals at a reasonable cost, and aim to operate more cost-effectively and provide more widespread access to these pigs for the future of research and medicine for diabetes.”

CorVus has licensed its innovation through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization and the Indiana University Research and Technology Corp.

“During the research phase at Purdue and IU, independent of the company, we sold the pigs to over 140 research institutions. We know scientists recognize the value and benefit of the Ossabaws,” Sturek said. “We are the only company that is big enough to produce enough pigs so that scientists can have that access. We are excited to get our production site up and running, selling the pigs to researchers to study at their own sites.”

Ossabaw swine resources at Purdue and IU have also been supported by the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute.

About CorVus Biomedical LLC

CorVus Biomedical has more than 50 years combined experience in biomedical research, including: anesthesia, cardiology, surgery, pathology, endocrinology, immunology, radiology, pharmacology, nutrition, physiology and many more. Over a decade ago, we saved a small number of Ossabaw swine from a small island off the coast of Georgia. These animals can display metabolic syndrome, a malady common to modern people. CorVus tests new therapies that can be applied to human medicine.

About Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization

The Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the U.S. Services provided by this office support the economic development initiatives of Purdue University and benefit the university's academic activities. The office is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, which received the 2016 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Award for Innovation from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org. For more information on licensing a Purdue innovation, contact the Office of Technology Commercialization at innovation@prf.org.

About Indiana University Research and Technology Corp.

IURTC is tasked with the protection and commercialization of technology emanating from innovations by IU researchers. Since 1997, IU research has generated almost 3,000 inventions resulting in more than 4,500 global patent applications. These discoveries have generated more than $142 million in licensing and royalty income, including more than $115 million in funding for IU departments, labs and inventors.

About Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute

The Indiana CTSI is a collaboration of Indiana University, Purdue University and the University of Notre Dame supported by public and private partnerships statewide. Funded by a National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Sciences Award, the Indiana CTSI’s mission is to accelerate scientific discovery to improve human health in Indiana and beyond.


            

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