University News

WIU 2018 alumnus Mallika Asar
[Download Print-Quality Image]

WIU Chemistry Professor Part of Laboratory Research Start-Up Company

March 28, 2023

Share |
Printer friendly version

MACOMB, IL – One of the owners of a laboratory-based start-up company, designed to help standardize conditions in cancer cell research, is a member of Western Illinois University's Chemistry faculty.

Cell Origins was born in 2019, created by WIU Associate Professor Mette Soendergaard and two fellow female owners who are University of Missouri alumni, Jessica Newton-Northup and Leann Kuhlmann-Qu. The three women met at the University of Missouri, where they now rent laboratory space for Cell Origins' growing research center. Soendergaard received her doctoral degree from the University of Missouri.

"After I left the University of Missouri, Jessica and I talked about doing our own thing," said Soendergaard. "We began writing research proposals and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had a call for developing new methods to standardize lab work - our proposal was funded."

The business' current focus is creating laboratory kits to standardize conditions for the study of prostate cancer cells. The research by Cell Origins incorporates phage display, for which Dr. George Smith, of the University of Missouri, won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His work is used in biomedical research for the discovery of new drugs.

The women of Cell Origins have filed a provisional patent for their laboratory kit, which places a hold on their project and gives them up to one year to file additional data. Soendergaard said the hope is to have a full patent for the laboratory kits by the end of spring and that beta-testing of the product could take six-12 months to complete.

In the meantime, the three women are doing contract work with several pharmaceutical companies on drug discovery of new cancer drugs. All three women have a background in biomedical science.

"Using human cells in the lab, it's difficult to standardize conditions for the cells," said Soendergaard. "If others want to build on the work, a lot of research is not repeatable if you don't have the exact same conditions. Previously, there was no way to standardize and compare."

The company's products could be used by academic, industry or hospital labs; basically anywhere research is conducted with human cells. The group decided to start the re-agent kits for work with prostate cancer cells because they are among the most common.

Soendergaard's laboratory at WIU has done a variety of cancer cell research in recent years, including testing the cancer-prevention qualities of heirloom tomatoes grown in WIU School of Agriculture facilities by Assistant Professor of Agriculture Shelby Henning.

In addition to Soendergaard's WIU connection, WIU 2018 alumnus Mallika Asar was hired by Cell Origins to conduct work through the NIH grant cycle. Soendergaard said the company also hopes to hire other WIU students and graduates as it grows.

For more information about the research company, visit cellorigins.com.

Posted By: Jodi Pospeschil (JK-Pospeschil@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing