JEWISH WORLD

By ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN C an an antiviral food additive for farmed shrimp be adapt- ed for protecting humans against coronavirus? Very possibly, says the technology’s developer, Israeli scientist and serial entrepre- neur Avi Schroeder. Schroeder, 43, heads the Tech- nion-Israel Institute of Technol- ogy’s Targeted Drug Delivery and Personalized Medicine Group. The coronavirus crisis has concerned him from the start. In January, he helped organize a delivery of 10,000 protective facemasks on the last flight to China from Ben- Gurion International Airport. On March 15, he agreed to advise the Israel Defense Forces’ Home Front Command on dealing with the epi- demic in Israel. Schroeder explains that five years ago, his lab invented a technology that boosts the immune system of animals against viral diseases. The invention was spun off into a Haifa-based startup, ViAqua Thera- peutics. With Schroeder as scientif- ic adviser, ViAqua decided to focus on shrimp, an important aquacul- ture product in many countries. A viral infection called white spot syndrome is wiping out nearly 30 percent of the shrimp population globally every year. “The feed proved extremely effective in trials against the virus conducted in Thailand, USA and Europe,” Schroeder tells ISRAEL21c . Regulatory approval is expected this year in 11 countries. Schroeder believes the same antiviral technol- ogy could be adapted for humans. “The gap is not great. We under- stand how the virus works and where we can attack it to stop its progression inside the body,” he explains. Research partnerships could push this approach forward as the pan- demic continues. V iAqua Therapeutics is one of four biotech startups in which Schroeder is involved. It’s not the only one with an animal connec- tion. While ViAqua focuses on how humans can protect shrimp against viral diseases, Peel Therapeutics focuses on how elephants can pro- tect humans against cancer. We all know the adage that ele- phants never forget. What is more astonishing is that elephants never get cancer. Schroeder heard this fact in 2015 from Dr. Joshua Schiffman, a Salt Lake City pediatric hematol- ogist-oncologist speaking at a local medical conference. Eager to find out more, Schroeder invited Schiff- man to dinner in Haifa that evening. “Elephants’ body mass is 100 times greater than ours and they have a similar lifespan. If they don’t get cancer even though they have 100 times more cells than we do, something is protecting them that we lack,” Schroeder learned from Schiffman. And Schiffman learned that Schroeder develops nanotech- nologies to deliver cancer meds pre- cisely to tumor sites. The conversa- tion led the two scientists to cofound Peel Therapeutics (“ peel ” is Hebrew for “elephant”). The company, jointly held by the Technion and the University of Utah, discovered which protein pro- tects elephants from cancer: P53. “Humans have two copies of P53, and elephants have 40 copies of P53,” Schroeder tells ISRAEL21c . “One of the elephant copies is a super-acting P53. I thought we could use nanotechnology to deliv- er this elephant protein to humans as a medication.” In Petri dishes, synthetic elephant P53 effectively killed cells from 15 types of human cancers. “It is unbelievable to see how the cancer cells explode,” says Schroeder. Preclinical trials are pro- ceeding. Schroeder’s first enterprise was a Hebrew University spinoff Moe- bius Medical, based in Tel Aviv. The license for the company’s injectable medication to treat severe osteoarthritis is now owned by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, one of the world’s 10 largest specialty and generic medicine makers. Ad- vanced clinical trials are planned this year in the United States and Europe. “It was one of the greatest moments of my life when I heard the results of the first clinical trial,” says Schroeder. “A single injection lubricates the knee with a new medicinal compound and lets pa- tients regain daily function with almost no pain medication, which is amazing.” The effect is immediate and lasts about 90 days. Pending further tri- als, Schroeder hopes to see the Moebius medication on the market around 2022. B arcode Diagnostics aims to help oncologists choose the best treatment for each cancer patient. “Not knowing which medication to give is one of the greatest chal- lenges physicians face daily,” says Schroeder. “It’s assumed in breast cancer that about one-third of patients receive medication they don’t respond to. And that type of cancer has the greatest arsenal of research and treatment options. So we wondered: Could we improve the personalized medicine process?” They invented a technology that works like an allergy test inside the patient’s tumor. Nanoparticles con- taining minuscule doses of different medications — each the size of 1/1000 width of a hair — are intro- duced into the tumor. They’re tracked using a unique barcoding system to determine within 48 hours which is most effective. “We had a lot of moments of almost giving up because it was so hard,” says Schroeder, “but an amazing team of students and researchers got it to work.” Backed by the NGT3 (Next Generation Technology) venture fund in Nazareth, Barcode Dia- gnostics is starting human clinical trials this year in Israel. Schroeder expects a fast regulatory path because the technology fills an Shrimp’s Antiviral Protect Humans? Can shellfish technology fight coronavirus? Elephant protein fight cancer? continued on page 30 “The feed proved extremely effective.” Schroeder believes the same antiviral could be adapted for humans. Elephants have 100 times more cells than we do, but don’t get cancer; something is protecting them.” 6 JEWISH WORLD • APRIL 24-30, 2020 REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK Technion personalized medicine researcher Dr. Avi Schroeder invented a technology to protect shrimp from a deadly virus. Technion researcher Dr. Avi Schroeder has agreed to advise the Israel Defense Forces’ Home Front Command on dealing with the coronavirus in Israel.`