OncoTrap Information

OncoTrap Inc. is founded as a result of the perfect integration of the novel in vivo nucleic delivery technology and de novo protein engineering technology. These technologies are the outcomes of more than ten years of teamwork from Dr. Leaf Huang's study on the delivery system and Dr. Rihe Liu's study on protein engineering at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. When the technology advances into maturity stage on the bench, Professor Huang and Professor Liu founded this company, namely OncoTrap, aiming of translating the research discoveries into clinical practices to benefit patients, which is the ultimate goal of the scientists. OncoTrap's approach is to establish a nucleic acid delivery platform that could accommodate different nucleic acid based therapeutics. Pipeline drugs OT-1, OT-2 and OT-3 are designed to deliver therapeutic genes to the tumor site and the gene product could reverse the tumor suppressive microenvironment and stimulate the adaptive immune response against tumors. These pipeline candidates are under preclinical evaluations for many cancer indications. OT-4 is a polymeric gene delivery platform that could treat cancer by delivering siRNA to stop oncogene expression and suppress proliferation of cancer cells. These platform delivery system, with diverse nucleic acid payloads engineered for various therapeutic targets, are not limited to the cancer treatment; they also show potential in treating infectious diseases and single gene disorders. As a start-up company, OncoTrap acknowledges the fact that technology translation is difficult and problematic. Therefore, we are under the guidance of leading academic investigators, along with the experienced professionals from pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries as well as business development field, dedicating to fulfilling the clinical translation in a smooth but expeditious way.