Safa Jafari Safa, Office of Communications, communications@aub.edu.lb
A team of AUB physicians and scientists have founded the first US-based biotech S-Corporation, Teucer Biotech Inc., centered on an AUB-generated original invention.
Teucer Biotech Inc. is founded around US Patent 10,801,066 issued for the “Determination of risk for development of cardiovascular disease by measuring urinary levels of podocin and nephrin messenger RNA," with patent positions also issued in Canada, Europe, and Australia.
“We believe we have uncovered a novel clinical biomarker which predicts the development of adverse cardiovascular outcomes (hypertension, acute coronary syndrome, stroke, dementia, peripheral vascular disease, and others) much earlier and with substantially greater prediction power than the earlier currently employed risk predictor, namely “moderate albuminuria (increase albumin in urine)," said Dr. Kamal Badr, AUB professor of internal medicine.
Along with AUB, the company is owned by co-founders Kamal Badr; Assaad Eid, associate professor of anatomy and molecular medicine; Robert Habib, former AUB faculty member and current director of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Research Center, Chicago, IL, USA; and Joao Lima, professor of cardiology, radiology, and epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Yousif Asfour, chief innovation and transformation officer, represents AUB on Teucer's Board of Directors, which is chaired by Professor Badr.
“We contend that our findings, once validated across large populations and disease states, will significantly reduce the global burden of cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the world, by providing a more robust and reliable indicator for pre-clinical systemic vascular injury many years prior to overt cardiovascular events, thereby triggering much earlier behavioral and pharmacological interventions," added Dr. Badr.
On March 31, 2021, Drs. Kamal Badr, Assaad Eid, and Yousif Asfour presented AUB President Fadlo Khuri with the stock certificate representing AUB's part ownership of Teucer Biotech Inc.
Following five years of intensive review and data acquisition, the AUB invention was awarded the US patent on October 13, 2020, which coincided with the 100th year commemoration of the official naming of the American University of Beirut.