CognaLearn

As trailblazers in medical science, Duke-NUS students and staff innovate with the goal of bringing their ideas to reality and improving the community.

In 2015, Brian O’Dwyer, who was then an Entreprenuer-in-Residence in Duke-NUS’ Centre for Technology and Development (CTeD), founded CognaLearn, a learning science company that combines team-based education and cognitive science with digital technology developed at Duke-NUS. The company facilitates efficient and productive learning that leads to improve learning outcomes, working with over 75 academic, corporate and government institutions across 15 countries to enhance education through teaching software, train-the-trainer workshops and Turnkey solutions.

Brian, who is also a Duke University MBA graduate, and his team at CognaLearn developed InteDashboard — the company’s proprietary software solution that facilitates digital team-based learning. Used in 20 institutions across Asia, Australia and the United States, it guides students through the learning process from pre-work until lesson and evaluation by aligning curriculum goals with appropriate learning strategies, resulting in a more cohesive curriculum.

CognaLearn has achieved much since its founding, with recognition and accolades from both the Education and Information Technology sectors, winning awards at major platforms, such as the TechSauce Global Summit 2018, INSEAD Education Symposium 2018 and the Excellence in eLearning, World Education Congress and Awards. CognaLearn continues to advocate and propagate team-based learning to achieve its vision to improve outcomes for one million learners by 2025.

Travecta Therapeutics Pte Ltd

The protective blood-brain barrier of the central nervous system is highly effective at preventing toxic compounds from entering the brain. As a result, more than 98% of drug molecules are also unable to enter the brain, making it difficult to treat diseases of the brain, eye and central nervous system.

Travecta Therapeutics Pte Ltd was co-founded by Professor David Silver, who is from Duke NUS’ Programme in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders, based on his team’s discovery that a transporter protein called Mfsd2a carries lipids, such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), in the chemical form of lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) to the brain.

Building on a deep understanding of the Mfsd2a transporter, Travecta’s proprietary platform, mVECTA^TM, allows the targeting of key biological targets across the blood-brain barrier, aiding in the development of new therapies for currently untreatable diseases and potentially revolutionising treatments for neurological conditions.

Travecta has secured US$15 million in Series A funding for the mVECTA^TM platform from TKS1, a life-sciences-focused venture capital fund stemming from a partnership between SPRIM Ventures and Tikehau Capital. This will be used towards developing TVT-004 — Travecta’s leading non-opioid product, which targets pain — with clinical trials potentially beginning in 2021, as well as the progression of earlier stage research programmes in neuro-oncology and neuro-inflammation.

Enleofen Bio Pte Ltd

Interleukin-11 (IL-11) belongs to a class of proteins, known as cytokines, that mediates fibrosis. A breakthrough discovery in cardiovascular fibrosis by Professor Stuart Cook and Assistant Professor Sebastian Schafer from Duke-NUS’ Programme in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders and National Heart Centre Singapore showed that blocking IL-11 can inhibit fibrotic diseases of the heart, liver and lungs. With few treatment options available for fibrotic diseases — a major cause of illness and death around the world — this compelling need led to their founding of Enleofen Bio Pte Ltd to develop first-class therapeutics for the treatment of such diseases, including non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) like idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

In December 2019, the privately-owned German drug company Boehringer Ingelheim International entered a deal with Enleofen Bio to purchase the company’s assets and take over the licensing of the intellectual property assets from the owners Duke-NUS and SingHealth Services with a view to develop preclinical drug candidates that target IL-11. Enleofen’s lead product candidate, ENx108A, is an IL-11-targeting antibody that has been shown to reverse organ dysfunction by targeting fibrosis and inflammation. Other product candidates include ENx203 and ENx209, as well as second-generation therapeutics.

Boehringer Ingelheim’s initial focus will be on developing novel therapies for patients with NASH and ILDs, two of their core disease focus areas, with potential for further expansion into other fibro-inflammatory conditions based on IL-11’s central role in disease. The company will work closely with Duke-NUS to further develop the anti-IL11 antibody platform and translate it into clinical development, with the prospect of addressing the currently unmet needs of patients around the world.

Evecxia Inc

There is an inadequacy in the current range of therapies for patients suffering from common, disabling and costly neuropsychiatric conditions, such as depression. Based in the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, USA, Evecxia Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company that seeks to develop solutions for treatment-resistant depression and other neuropsychiatric and non-psychiatric disorders. Its first lead compound is EVX-101, a treatment targeted at patients who are not achieving adequate responses to traditional antidepressants.

Dr Jacob Jacobsen, one of Evecxia’s founders and its Chief Scientific Officer, as well as a past faculty member at Duke-NUS, worked with colleagues at the National University Hospital and NTUitive to generate the key intellectual property (IP) that enabled the development of EVX-101, a new formulation of 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP). In 2018, the company was granted the rights to develop and commercialise this jointly owned IP.

With the licensing rights, Evecxia aims to develop a treatment using slow-release formulations of 5-HTP and low dose carbidopa for treatment-resistant depression. In 2019, Evecxia announced it had successfully raised almost US $2 million for the further development of EVX-101 and the formulation of other technologies and treatments for neuropsychiatric diseases.

Mogrify Ltd

Assistant Professor Owen Rackham, who is from Duke-NUS’ Programme in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders, co-founded Mogrify Ltd with his academic colleagues at the University of Bristol in the UK, Monash University in Australia and RIKEN, a major scientific research institute in Japan. Mogrify Ltd uses a network-based algorithm to identify optimal combinations of transcription factors that influence cellular change. This systemic, big data-science approach can be applied to various medical research applications and potentially transform the face of cell therapy.

By 2019, Mogrify had secured $20 million in funding towards research and the licensing of their direct conversion approach to cell therapy. The expansion of a new base in Cambridge, England, is also underway.

Through the funding, the company will continue to enhance its big data-science approach and develop innovative technologies to address the efficacy, safety and scalability issues currently associated with cell therapy development and manufacturing.

Apart from partnerships with disruptive innovators in the regenerative medicine, cell therapy, bio-manufacturing and research sectors, Mogrify’s work has won the company the prestigious Scrip Award for innovation in recognition of the immense potential that such a technology has to disrupt the future development of new medicines.

The SARS-CoV-2 serology test that detects neutralising antibodies

In partnership with GenScript Biotech Corporation and A*STAR’s Diagnostics Development Hub (DxD Hub), Duke-NUS is leading the co-development and manufacturing of a unique serological COVID-19 detection system, marketed as cPass^TM. This test, developed by Professor Wang Linfa and his team from Duke-NUS’ Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases, enables rapid detection of neutralising antibodies without the need for live biological materials and biocontainment facilities, meaning that it can be analysed in a standard hospital laboratory.

The partnership with A*STAR’s DxD Hub has since facilitated regulatory approvals from Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority, which enabled the distribution of the cPass^TM test kit to hospitals around the country, while GenScript has led applications for regulatory approval in the EU, US and other markets around the world.

The cPass^TM test is expected to have a major impact on COVID-19 investigations, such as contact tracing, reservoir or intermediate animal tracking, the assessment of herd immunity, the longevity of protective immunity and the efficacy of different vaccine candidates.