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Medicenna BioPharma Announces Strategic Collaboration with MD Anderson Cancer Center to Advance Next Generation Empowered Cytokines(TM)
Medicenna BioPharma Announces Strategic Collaboration with MD Anderson Cancer Center to Ad...
About this update from Medicenna Therapeutics Corp.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\nMedicenna BioPharma Announces Strategic Collaboration with MD Anderson Cancer Center to Advance Next Generation Empowered Cytokines™\n\n/* Style Definitions */\nspan.prnews_span\n{\nfont-size:8pt;\nfont-family:\"Arial\";\ncolor:black;\n}\na.prnews_a\n{\ncolor:blue;\n}\nli.prnews_li\n{\nfont-size:8pt;\nfont-family:\"Arial\";\ncolor:black;\n}\np.prnews_p\n{\nfont-size:0.62em;\nfont-family:\"Arial\";\ncolor:black;\nmargin:0in;\n}\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCanada NewsWire\nHOUSTON and TORONTO, March 16, 2017\n\n\n\nHOUSTON and TORONTO, March 16, 2017 /CNW/ - Medicenna BioPharma Inc. (\"Medicenna\" or \"the Company\"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Medicenna Therapeutics Corp., a publicly listed clinical stage immuno-oncology company (TSXV: \"MDNA\"), today announced that it has entered into a sponsored research agreement with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (\"MD Anderson\") to develop next generation fusion protein therapeutics targeting the IL-4 Receptor (IL4R). The multi-year collaboration, under the direction of Dr. Michael Rosenblum, will focus on designing, optimizing and advancing pre-clinical development of Empowered Cytokines™ based on Medicenna's novel IL-4 and IL-13 Superkine™ platform, exclusively licensed from Stanford University.     \n\nThe research activities will be conducted at the Immunopharmacology and Targeted Therapy (\"ITT\") Laboratory in the Department of Experimental Therapeutics at MD Anderson, which has considerable expertise in drug development and a full range of capabilities for characterization of oncology drug candidates. Additionally, the ITT Laboratory, led by Dr. Rosenblum, focuses on the development of novel, recombinant therapeutics targeting solid tumors, tumor vasculature and the tumor micro-environment.  \n\n\"We are excited to partner with Dr. Rosenblum and the ITT Laboratory at MD Anderson to accelerate the development of next generation fully human Empowered Cytokines™,\" said Fahar Merchant, PhD, President & CEO of Medicenna. \"By combining our Superkine™ platform with a novel cell killing payload, Medicenna's Empowered Cytokines™ are designed to selectively target and eliminate tumors as well as the immunosuppressive tumor micro-environment. We believe that our exciting platform, combined with the impres...