MiReven nabs US patent for anticancer technology

Perth-based MiReven has secured its first US patent for its microRNA-based anticancer technology.

MiReven was formed in 2010 to commercialise discoveries from the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research on the anticancer potential of the microRNA precursor miR-7.

The company has been granted a US patent covering a method of modulation of expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) involving microRNA.

miR-7 is part of a family of small molecules that have the ability to regulate families of genes inside cells. Specifically, miR-7 regulates genes involved in cancer and resistance to cancer therapy.

MiReven aims to develop miR-7 as an miR-replacement therapy for difficult-to-treat cancers.

Professor Peter Leedman, director of the Perkins Institute and co-inventor of MiReven’s technology, called the grant of the company’s first patent “a milestone in the development of MiReven’s growing intellectual property portfolio”.

Leedman was appointed director of the institute in March. The Perkins Institute changed its name from the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research in 2013 to honour its inaugural chairman Harry Perkins, who died of cancer in 2002.

The institute moved into a new headquarters at the QEII Medical Centre in the Perth suburb of Nedlands in early March.