An important part of the TIDO mission is to identify partners to whom to grant the right to develop and market Boston Children’s inventions. We have a track record of establishing successful partnerships, which have led the sale of products that benefit the product. Learn more about some of our success stories:
Shire
Boston Children’s Stuart Orkin, M.D. and his colleague David Ginsburg, M.D., first cloned the gene for von Willebrand factor more than 30 years ago. This discovery led to Vonvendi, the first drug approved for use in treating von Willebrand disease, a blood clotting disorder that occurs in up to 1 percent of the general population due to mutations in VWF. Learn more.
Celgene
Multiple myeloma is a cancer that forms in plasma cells such as 
bone marrow. Robert D’Amato, M.D., Ph.D., in the vascular biology program at Boston Children’s discovered that thalidomide is a potent inhibitor of angiogenesis. He modified the drug to reduce its toxicity and increase its efficacy leading to the discovery of several analogs that the FDA has approved to treat myelodysplastic syndromes, mantle cell lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Learn more.
Biogen
Wayne Lencer, M.D., a researcher in Boston Children’s Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, and his collaborators discovered a way to make protein-based drugs like clotting factors stay in the circulation system longer. Their findings, licensed to Biogen IDEC have resulted in the development of two FDA-approved treatments for hemophilia, Alprolix® and ELOCTATE®.
Dystrophin Diagnostic
Using next generation sequencing and analysis, this tool diagnoses muscular dystrophy based on research conducted by Louis Kunkel, Ph.D., Director of the Genomics Program in the neurobiology department. The analysis tool examines and detects sequence variations in 33 genes, including duplications/deletions in four of these genes. Learn more.
Pfizer – Neumega®
Originally developed in the laboratory of David Williams, M.D., Chief, Division of Hematology/Oncology Neumega (interleukin 11) stimulates platelet production for use in patients with cancer in combination with chemotherapy. Learn more.
NeoSTX
Boston Children’s Charles Berde, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine sought a safe local anesthetic that would be a longer-lasting alternative to opioid painkillers. NeoSTX used in combination with local anesthetics provides markedly prolonged pain suppression — days, rather than the hours of potentially addictive opioids. NeoSTX is in clinical trials prior to commercial release.
EZ Board patient communication board
John Costello, M.A., director of the Augmentative Communication Program, created a medical symbol set to help patients who are unable to speak or write legibly. The symbols graphically represent words and phrases related to hospitalization. Children’s has been using them since 2002, and in 2009 TIDO licensed the medical symbol set to Vidatak, LLC, which is distributing the set on patient communication boards in every major language to care providers around the globe. Learn more.
ReFlow Shunt Flusher
Joseph Madsen, MD, Director of the Epilepsy Surgery Program in Boston Children’s Department of Neurosurgery Research developed the shunt flusher in response to a persistent and life-threatening tendency of shunts to fail in patients with hydrocephalus. The device is marketed commercially by Alcyone under the brand name ReFlow Flusher. Learn more.
iSpawn fish tank
Developed by zebrafish biologists Christian Lawrence and Isaac Adatto of Boston Children’s Aquatic Resources Program and the laboratory of Leonard Zon, MD, the iSpawn is a specialized breeding tank. Zebrafish are important for the rapid testing necessary to screen potential new therapeutics for patients with cancer and blood diseases and researchers investigating stem cells and genetic diseases. Learn more.