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Highlights

2467

Forum of Collaborative Research on Infectious Diseases

Boosting innovation and entrepreneurial activity

New inventions patented for breast cancer and leukemia

Dunia Jawdat appointed director of SSCDR

ISSUE 10JULY 2020

KAIMRC NEWSLETTERTHE RESEARCHER

innovations.kaimrc.med.sa/en/newsletters

K A I M R C N E W S L E T T E R 2

185 million Saudi Riyals were dedicated to research tackling major challenges, including 45 dedicated to coronavirus projects

KSAU-HS HOSTS FORUM ON COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH ON INFECTIOUS DISEASESThe Saudi Ministry of Education held the Forum of International Collaborative Research Projects for Infectious Diseases

A few weeks before Saudi Arabia imposed strict lockdown measures to face the COVID-19 pan-demic, the Saudi Ministry of Education’s Re-search and Innovation Agency held the Forum of International Collaborative Research Projects for Infectious Diseases. The forum, the first of its kind in the Middle East, was held on February 25 at the convention center of King Saud bin Ab-dulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS) in Riyadh under the slogan “Towards sustainable research development.” A total of 185 million Saudi Riyals were dedicated to researches tack-ling major challenges, that includes 90 million Saudi Riyals dedicated to support infectious dis-ease projects, including 45 million Saudi Riyals dedicated to coronavirus research projects.

Bandar Al-Knawy, CEO of the Ministry of Na-tional Guard-Health Affairs (MNGHA) and presi-dent of KSAU-HS, gave the opening remarks in the presence of leaders from sectors of education, higher education and research. He explained that KSAU-HS was keen on hosting this forum due to their firm belief in the importance of scientific re-search and innovation. He added that the world is now witnessing various challenges that are of great concern to the international community and that threaten the public health in light of the outbreak of viruses like MERS-CoV, which causes

the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, and SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19 which has spread worldwide and resulted in thousands of deaths. Al-Knawy also highlighted the importance of collaboration and interaction between different local and international entities, as well as that of specialized centers like KAIMRC, which has be-come a leading platform in fostering the right sci-entific environment for researchers to guarantee high-quality medical care for Saudi citizens, which are pillars of the Saudi Vision 2030.

Ahmed Alaskar, executive director of KAIMRC, said that scientific research and innovation are two of the most important elements to achieve sustainable development and to raise the eco-nomic indicators, hence improving the quality of life through meeting national and societal needs.

A memorandum of understanding between KAIMRC and Sudair Pharmaceutical Company, and another between KAIMRC and the Saudi Pharmaceutical Industries and Medical Applianc-es Corporation (SPIMACO) were signed during the forum. The memoranda mark collaborative projects on various fronts, including clinical trials, drug developments and manufacturing medical equipment. The event also saw the opening of the accompanying exhibition, as well as honoring the researchers who received the research sup-port by the Ministry of Education.

3T H E R E S E A R C H E R I S S U E 10

INAUGURAL WORKSHOP PROVIDES PROFOUND INSIGHTS INTO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTYIn a first, leaders in biomedicine, biotechnology and pharmaceutical R&D gathered in KAIMRC for a comprehensive workshop on intellectual property and its protection.

The workshop, which took place in November 2019 under the title “Healthcare Intellectual Property Awareness: Vision 2030 – Accelerating Saudi Arabia’s emergence as a leading health-care innovator,” was organised by KAIMRC, Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) and global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright. The program included a total of 17 speakers from the orga-nizing companies as well as other private law and biotech companies, including GE Health-care and GlaxoSmithKline.

As part of the Saudi Vision 2030, a historic reform plan introduced by Prince Mohammed bin Salman, relentless advances in the biotech-nology and pharmaceutical industries have pushed the kingdom to the forefront of health-care innovation. As a result, appropriate man-agement of intellectual property has become

critical. The workshop followed numerous ini-tiatives that SABIC had organized in the region since 2012 in the chemical and petrochemical industry.

“These workshops focus on how companies, organisations and educational institutes should consider and manage intellectual property to reduce and mitigate risk while maximising the rights and value,” explains Zayd Alathari, one of the co-organisers from SABIC. “The health-care workshop was a new endeavour stemming from SABIC’s commitment to local content and to invest in and develop non-SABIC business to support society at large and Vision 2030.”

Over two days, industry experts covered a range of topics from research, licensing, and the development of intellectual property agreements to biotech collaborations and the

legal aspects of intellectual property protec-tion.

The first day of the workshop included talks on transforming research into products, pro-tection of intellectual property along the value chain, and an overview of the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property. There were also more specialised talks on challenges and opportuni-ties, and a summary of how KAIMRC has been managing intellectual property over the years. “One of the highlights was the presentation by the biotech industry expert Wally Kemp, who discussed how innovation, technology and in-tellectual property are relevant in the health-care industry,” says Alathari.

Second-day talks progressed into biotech-nology acceleration and development and commercialisation elements, showcasing case studies of biotechnology startups and foreign investment in the healthcare industry. Finally, the focus moved to intellectual property in bio-technology and patent applications.

Both days concluded with panel discussions and closing remarks from international and na-tional experts.

The workshop was especially helpful to re-searchers at KAIMRC with creative knowledge and innovative ideas they wish to bring to the market. The organizers hope that this and fu-ture innovative workshops will augment Saudi Arabia’s efforts as it tackles local and global healthcare challenges.

“Building from this experience and collab-oration, there will be yearly workshops and training sessions set up between SABIC and the healthcare industry,” said Alathari. Future workshops will support the development of Saudi Arabia into a leader in the healthcare re-search and development that can tackle some of the world’s major health challenges.

“The healthcare workshop was a new endeavour stemming from SABIC’s commit-ment to local content and to invest in and develop non-SABIC business to support society at large and Vision 2030.”

K A I M R C N E W S L E T T E R 4

BOOSTING INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITY

The newly formed Innovation and Entrepreneur-ship Department (IED) will help translate the research outcomes and innovations developed by researchers at KAIMRC, King Saud bin Ab-dulaziz University for Health Science (KSAU-HS), to real-world applications.

The IED, launched in 2019, builds on the work of the Innovation Technology Transfer Management Office (ITTMO) at KAIMRC to serve the kingdom’s Vision 2030 and further enhance its resources and economic stability.

IED activities include promoting innova-tion and entrepreneurship awareness among all MNGHA affiliated centres, hospitals, and colleges; providing support for innovators to identify novel ideas that could be patented, applied and trademarked globally; and cre-ating strategic partnerships with local and

The KAIMRC Innovation and Entrepreneurship Department will smooth the path from innovation to application

its research and innovation portfolio.During the early stage of research develop-

ments, the IED will safeguard the intellectual property of researchers, clinicians, educators, students, and any other innovators who are affiliated with MNG-HA. This role also involves recognising innovative concepts and helping the researchers build on them.

Institutions linked to MNG-HA come up with many great new prospects every year.

“So far we have 22 registered patents, 29 provisional applications, 54 non-provisional applications, and 176 IDF’s, mainly in the fields of therapeutics and medical devices,” says Al Aamery. The IED will also help facilitate the transition from the laboratory to the market.

“We contact all scientists and research-ers to encourage invention applications,” Al Aamery adds. She explains that the IED also contacts potential collaborators or partners to link them with inventors and help the negoti-ate business plans and contracts.

The commercialisation of new technolo-gies will be promoted in partnership with the KAIMRC Medical Biotechnology Park at King Abdulaziz Medical City Riyadh. This will create strategic partnerships with local and interna-tional businesses that will enhance healthcare services, and build bridges between academia and industry.

The IED has also set up annual innovation awards and grants to support product devel-opment. Some grants specifically go towards students working on entrepreneurial projects. All of these activities will be complemented by education programmers to teach entre-preneurial strategy, venture financing and start-up-related skills.

international businesses to enhance health-care services. The IED also aims to facilitate the commercialisation of new technologies in partnership with KAIMRC Medical Biotechnol-ogy Park to maximise research return on in-vestment through supporting the creation of spin-off companies.

The IED is chaired by Manal Al Aamery. Dr. Al Aamery is currently head of the Devel-opmental Medicine Department at KAIMRC at the MNGHA, director of the satellite lab for the National Saudi Genome Program at KAIMRC, and a principal investigator at the Center of Excellence for Biomedicine at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST). With Al Aamery at the helm, IED is expected to lead in identifying and adopting innovation metrics across KAIMRC to optimise

“We contact all scientists and researchers to encourage invention applications.”

5T H E R E S E A R C H E R I S S U E 10

KAIMRC HOSTS ‘RESEARCH TO PUBLICATION’ WORKSHOP

KAIMRC’S RESEARCH METHODOLOGY WORKSHOP PRIMES FOR SUCCESS

To help researchers and students learn more about the process of scientific publishing, KAIMRC and the British Medical Journal (BMJ) held a workshop.

KAIMRC’s Ibraheem Bushnak, the head of research, training and devel-opment section (RTD), and Bader Al Debasi, deputy head of RTD organized the event, Research to Publication, and BMJ research editor, John Fletcher, was the main speaker. The workshop covered topics from honing effective reporting skills and writing practices to choosing the right journal and hon-oring publication ethics.

The workshop was organized to help KAIMRC’s healthcare research-ers produce clear, high-level, evidence-based reports and publish them in prestigious journals. Participants were given a glimpse into reporting standards, what piques a journal editor’s interest, and how they evaluate scientific manuscripts.

Fletcher underscored the importance of carrying out research that adds value to the scientific enterprise.

Throughout his presentations, he highlighted the need to address ques-tions relevant to the users of the research, as well as methods to appropriately design a research project, analyze the data, and present it in a clear report.

One of the key challenges addressed in the workshop was how to ap-proach journal editors. Fletcher stressed the need for an original question at the heart of the research for contribution to be valuable. As important as the topic, he said, was the selection of an appropriate journal for submission.

“The workshop was a beneficial event during which participants en-gaged with the material and learned about the topics presented,” says Al Debasi. Thanks to its success, KAIMRC is considering organizing a follow-up workshop titled ‘Scientific Writing and Publishing.’

KAIMRC collaborated with British Medical Journal on a workshop to help researchers hone their publishing skills

Held biannually, the workshop teaches healthcare professionals the different steps of research

KAIMRC held its biannual Research Methodology Course and Work-shop mid-September. Held in Al-Ahsa, the three-day course brings together 30 healthcare providers, researchers and clinicians to train them on conducting research. Through a series of lectures and hands-on exercises, participants are taught how to design and plan a research project, submit a proposal, collect data, and prepare a report.

The workshop opened on September 17 with an overview of re-search methodologies and study design, to help students learn to iden-tify a research problem and formulate a hypothesis.

The lectures on the next day covered a range of topics including research biases, sampling techniques, data collection, and the va-lidity and reliability of diagnostic tests in medicine. Finally, practical sessions on September 19 gave the participants an opportunity to try data analysis techniques on a ready-made dataset. The work-shop concluded with a closing lecture on scientific writing and how to prepare and submit a research manuscript and navigate the pro-cess of revision.

Mostafa Abolfotouh, senior research scientist at KAIMRC, has taught the course for the past 10 years. Abolfotouh points out that par-ticipants were introduced to statistical concepts without using mathe-matical formulas, which some people find burdensome. Instead, he taught the participants to understand the meaning of statistical ques-tions and the implications of the results. Through the use of hypothet-ical situations, they learned how statistical analyses can go wrong and how to spot flaws in their own work or research they read about. To-gether with a series of self-assessment exercises after each lecture, this provided the participants with important hands-on experience using their new knowledge.

Each year, the material in the workshop is tailored to the educa-tional needs of the participants and current trends in professional practice and research. As a result, the participants were pleased with their experience, and many left the course inspired to start new research projects.

“This workshop was a practical, enjoyable, step-by-step approach to learning to be thoughtful, critical, and ultimately more efficient in conducting research,” says Abolfotouh. “After the course, participants are able to review journal articles and feel comfortable critiquing the articles they read, and they are also ready to set research questions, write a proposal to answer those questions, and carry out the study.”

K A I M R C N E W S L E T T E R 6

NEW INVENTIONS PATENTED FOR LEUKEMIA AND BREAST CANCERKAIMRC researchers awarded patents for targeted drug delivery for breast cancer and determining treatment success in leukemia

Cancer researchers from KAIMRC were awarded two new patents this past year, one for deter-mining the efficiency in leukemia treatment in a patient, and the other for sustained and target-ed drug delivery for breast cancer.

The first invention was developed by bio-chemist, Mohamed Boudjelal, in collaboration with Ahmed Alaskar, KAIMRC’s executive di-

rector. The technique utilizes the human body being governed by daily rhythms that affect not only sleep patterns, but immune function, metabolism and cell growth. In 2017, Boudjelal, Alaskar, and their colleagues showed that genes involved in regulating the biological clock are generally out of sync in leukemia cells, but re-turned to more regular cadences after success-

ful treatment. They reported their findings in the Journal of Circadian Rhythms.

Building on that result, the researchers de-veloped a strategy for evaluating how well che-motherapeutics and targeted anti-cancer drugs are working on the basis of gene expression profiling. “Clock biology can be used to measure the efficacy of drug treatment,” says Boudjelal, the chairman of the Medical Core Facility and head of KAIMRC’s Drug Discovery Unit. The nov-el method involves taking blood samples from a patient undergoing leukemia treatment and measuring the activity levels of rhythm-dictating clock genes at the beginning of therapy, and at least one month later. If the clock genes display a healthier expression pattern at the second time point, the treatment is presumably work-ing. If the genetic profile has not improved, the patient could be on the verge of relapse and a new course of therapy warranted.

The US Patent and Trademark Office award-ed the patent in April 2019. Four months later, it granted patent rights to KAIMRC for another cancer-related technology — a controlled-re-leased drug formulation designed to improve outcomes for patients with breast cancer.

The nanoparticle-based drug delivery sys-tem was developed by Salam Massadeh, head of the Therapy Developmental Lab and Manal Alaamery, head of the Developmental Medicine Department at KAIMRC and executive director of the Health Sciences Research Center at Prin-cess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University. The two have created a biodegradable polymer that forms a gel-like casing around letrozole, a drug that blocks estrogen signaling and is commonly used to treat hormone-responsive breast tu-mours. The polymer breaks down slowly in the body, allowing for less frequent drug dosing. Normally, letrozole is taken as a tablet once a day. With the nanoparticle preparation, “we have a treatment we can give once every three days,” says Massadeh, “and it can be optimized to deliver once weekly.”

The researchers also formulated their nanoparticles to specifically bind proteins found in or on breast cancer cells. The proprietary nanoparticles thus deliver their destructive pay-loads to the sites of tumour growth — either in the breast or at metastatic sites around the body — without killing the surrounding tissue. “It’s targeted to the cancer cells,” explains Alaamery. “So, in this way, the side effects of the chemo-therapy are avoided by not hitting all the organs in the body.” Massadeh and Alaamery are now evaluating their platform in mouse models. If successful, human clinical trials could follow.

7T H E R E S E A R C H E R I S S U E 10

DUNIA JAWDAT APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF THE SAUDI STEM CELL DONOR REGISTRYImmunologist to lead the registry of more than 75,000 potential stem cell donors

Dunia Jawdat, director of the Cord Blood Bank and associate professor of immunology at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS), has been appointed director of the Saudi Stem Cell Donor Registry (SSCDR) at KAIMRC.

Jawdat has been the acting director of the registry since 2018. “I am delighted to implement the mission of SSCDR as a national organization and increase the likelihood of finding a cure for patients with life-threatening diseases,” she says.

The aim of SSCDR, launched in 2011 by KAIMRC and the Ministry of National Guard Health Af-fairs (MNG-HA), is to find matching stem cell do-nors for treating patients diagnosed with diseas-es such as leukaemia, the fourth most common cancer among Saudis1, and immune disorders. The SSCDR has more than 75,000 registered potential donors who are willing to donate their blood-forming stem cells (hematopoietic stem cells, or HSC) to patients in need.

HSC transplantation involves injecting the pa-tients’ own stem cells or those of a donor whose cells are compatible with the patients’ immune system — based on human leukocyte antigen (HLA) testing — to reboot the production of healthy red and white blood cells and platelets. The stem cell donor may be related to the pa-tient or an unrelated volunteer found through a donor registry such as the SSCDR.

“The SSCDR recruits healthy volunteer do-nors according to international standards and regulations for stem cell donation, registers them in a searchable database for patient matching, and facilitates stem cell collection and transportation worldwide,” explains Jawdat.

In Saudi Arabia, the chances of finding a com-patible relative for HSC transplantation is around 40% in patients under 5 years old, and 68% in those aged 20 and over2. Although these figures are higher than the ones reported in most West-ern countries, mainly due to the larger number of siblings in most Saudi families, there is still a need for alternative donor strategies for pa-tients without matched related donors.

SSCDR is the largest stem cell donor registry in the Arab world, and the main source of stem cells for patients who fail to find matching do-nors among their relatives. Through educational events and campaigns about stem cell donation, the SSCDR is raising public awareness about the importance of stem cell donation, and encour-aging more people to register.

“My priorities as director are to provide the best stem cell source for patients while taking the utmost care of our volunteer donors, and to increase the HLA diversity within the registry to improve the chances of finding a matching donor,” says Jawdat.

Anyone between 18 and 49 can donate stem cells either from the bloodstream, using a proce-dure called peripheral blood stem cell donation, which does not require an operation, or through bone marrow harvest, which takes place under general or local anaesthesia and involves taking cells from inside the bone microenvironment via a syringe. Both methods are safe, and donors fully recover within two to three weeks after donation.

Currently, SSCDR works closely with 20 par-ticipating donor recruitment centres across the kingdom to ensure the diversity of the HLA and increase the chances of finding a matching donor. As a result of this continuous effort, SSCDR has successfully coordinated more than 66 stem cell donations and transplants for 40 patients within the kingdom and 26 patients in other countries, including the UK, US, Germany, Spain, Norway, Turkey, India, Sweden, Italy and Australia.

For further information on how to become a HSC donor, visit: https://sscdr.org.sa/

REFERENCES:1- Bazarbashi S, Al Eid H & Minguet J. Cancer Incidence

in Saudi Arabia: 2012 Data from the Saudi Cancer Reg-

istry. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2017; 18(9): 2437–2444.

2- Jawdat DM, Al Saleh S, Sutton P, et al. Chances of find-

ing an HLA-matched sibling: The Saudi experience. Biol

Blood Marrow Transplant. 2009;15 (10):1342–1344.

“The SSCDR recruits healthy volunteer donors according to international standards and regulations for stem cell donation, registers them in a searchable database for patient matching, and facilitates stem cell collection and transportation worldwide.”

Second Therapeutic Discoveries from Bench to First in Human Clinical Trials Conference

26-27 February 2020

ISSUE 10JULY 2020

KAIMRC NEWSLETTERTHE RESEARCHER

innovations.kaimrc.med.sa/en/newsletters