New hope for infertile women - Another project within Umeå Biotech Incubator (UBI) awarded a grant from Vinnova

Dr. Liu Kui has received a Vinn-Verifiering award (from VINNOVA) for an exciting project developed within Umeå Biotech Incubator (UBI). The award will allow him to optimize and evaluate a new treatment protocol for infertile couples; including women with Premature Ovarian Failure (POF). Dr Kui and his research team have discovered a key signalling molecule that affects the ovaries and consequently, control reproductive capacity in women in general. Dr. Kui published this seminal discovery on the mechanisms that control primordial follicle activation using a genetic model in Science (2008). 

Dr. Kui has become "the mythical prince", whose research could change the lives for millions of infertile women that have no effective treatment.  Guided by the initial discovery, Dr. Kui subsequently showed that transiently inhibiting the target molecule was sufficient to activate dormant primordial follicles in the laboratory, thus awakening "his sleeping beauties". While it is still a few years from the clinic, the treatment may offer renewed hope to infertile women who currently do not respond to various hormone or fertility drug therapies. Previously for these patients, it meant that they must use ova (or eggs), from surrogate donors, thus, having a child from the surrogates' genetic pool. Using this new treatment protocol, Dr. Kui could potentially harvest maturing ova from the primordial ova possessed by every woman since birth. In addition to treating female infertility, including POF, this method may offer a new fertility preservation regimen that will benefit cancer patients and perhaps help in the conservation of endangered animals.

Mr. Örjan Norberg (CEO, UBI) is elated with the news of Dr. Kui's Vinn-Verifiering award. "We at UBI are very pleased with the calibre of projects in our pipeline and it is great to have an external affirmation of the quality of commercializable science in Umeå." This is the second Vinn-Verifiering grant awarded to a UBI project. The UBI management team (Anders Bergman, Nelson Khoo) with expertise guidance of Dr. Peter Svalander will support Dr. Kui.

Dr. Peter Svalander (former CEO of VitroLife AB), a successful entrepreneur himself, sees this as a prominent inflection point that could revolutionize the assisted reproductive technology field.  Congratulations to all!

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