Laurie G. Hudson, Ph.D.
UNM Regents Professor
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
College of Pharmacy
Health Sciences Center, The University of New Mexico
Accelera Diagnostics (STC start-up)
Dr. Hudson has disclosed three inventions, has three pending patent applications for her GTPases-inhibitor and arsenic trioxide-inhibitor technologies, and one option to license agreement with Accelera Diagnostics, LLC. The STC start-up, a spin-off of investment firm Sunbelt Technologies Management, will develop Dr. Hudson and her co-inventor’s arsenic trioxide-inhibitor technology. ATO is already approved by the FDA for some leukemia treatment. As a repurposed compound, gaining FDA approval for this new application will be easier, faster and cheaper than developing a new drug. Dr. Hudson and her co-inventors received $25,000 in gap funding in 2012 from STC’s gap-fund program to develop the GTPases-inhibitor technology. GTPases are proteins that play key regulatory roles in nearly all cellular pathways from cell signaling to cell growth control. Mutated or overexpressed GTPases contribute to the formation of tumors and diseases such as ovarian cancer. Dr. Hudson and her co-inventors have discovered compounds that inhibit GTPases which they are currently testing in a pilot clinical trial with a group of ovarian cancer patients to confirm the ability of the compounds to inhibit ovarian cancer cell proliferation and migration. This technology also has the added advantage of being a repurposed compound.
Dr. Hudson’s research focuses on different aspects of cancer biology, including the contributions of environmental metals to cancer and novel therapeutics for ovarian cancer. Her environmental metals studies investigate metal disruption of zinc finger DNA repair proteins. The research specifically focuses on metal-protein interactions, cell and animal models of DNA damage and carcinogenesis, and the impact of metal exposure in human populations. Her ovarian cancer research concerns the mechanisms of metastatic disease and the potential for repurposed drugs to offer novel treatment options, and spans understanding the basic molecular mechanisms to conducting preliminary human clinical trials.
UNM-Affiliated Pending Patent Applications
| Modulators of GTPases and Their Use |
| Modulators of GTPases and Use In Relevant Treatment |
| Arsenic Trioxide as an Inhibitor of PARP-1 and Treatments of Disease Modulated Through Same |