Biologist Works to Understand Autoimmune Disease

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Biologist Works to Understand Autoimmune Disease

Jun. 28--There is a sense of urgency in the words that Dr.

Centola uses to describe the work that he has done as a research

scientist with the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.

Centola is a biologist who has developed technologies to quickly

determine how patients with autoimmune disease such as rheumatoid

arthritis respond to drug treatments.

Autoimmune disease can best be described as the body attacking itself,

Centola said.

He came to Oklahoma about five years ago to expand on groundbreaking

work he had done at the National Institutes of Health. There, he worked

with a team that developed what Centola calls the first ever " gene

expression profile " of arthritis.

When he got to the OMRF, he began with the end in mind.

" My interests were in doing science that was going to evolve into

useful clinical tools, " Centola said. " I do very practical

translational research.

" I want to get this into people's hands, and I want to find out what

tools they need and modify the tools so that it best suits them to

treat patients better. "

It is a personal mission for Centola. His father died of autoimmune

Hemolytic anemia, which was associated with chronic lymphocytic

leukemia. His sister suffers from lupus, which is an autoimmune

disease. Centola himself suffers from ulcerative colitis, an

inflammatory and ulcerative condition of the large intestine.

Two years ago, the 41-year-old California native created a company

called Riley Genomics that he hopes will further that mission. He is

chief scientific officer and president of the company.

Riley Genomics has established an inflammatory cytokine monitoring

panel in a laboratory at the Presbyterian Health Foundation Research

Park for patient diagnosis and therapeutic response monitoring.

That translates into a process that can quickly tell a doctor whether a

particular medicine is going to be effective in a patient's battle

against an autoimmune disease. When many modern medicines can cost

thousands of dollars per round of treatment, it becomes important to

identify how a patient is responding, Centola said.

" Not all patients respond the same ways to the drugs, " he said. " Some

drugs are $1,000 a month and a doctor has to make a decision: 'How long

do I treat him; who do I give this drug to; what do I do if it doesn't

work?' The decisions are being made without that basic information. "

With tissue samples sent to Riley Genomics' lab, the company has the

technology that allows it to predict within a couple weeks if a patient

is responding to the treatment.

It is a promising new avenue of biotechnology, said Dr. J.

Capra, president of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.

" The technologies Dr. Centola has developed offer the potential to

assist physicians in their treatment of patients suffering from

autoimmune diseases and other conditions, " Capra said. " These

technologies represent a paradigm shift in medical care, and I believe

they will help patients immeasurably. "

The potential cost savings to patients and third party payers are

enormous, said , the director of enterprise services for

i2E, the nonprofit company that manages the Oklahoma Technology

Commercialization Center for the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of

Science and Technology.

Riley Genomics is a client of i2E, which advises early stage companies

on raising capital and developing business plans.

" If you can pinpoint the types of drugs that would be more suitable for

a patient, then you can find a better cost benefit ratio for dollars

that would be spent, " said. " Not only patients, but the

third-party payers and the government would be interested because it

would save everybody money. "

For Centola, the bottom line is about advancing the frontiers of

" personalized medicine. "

The urgency of finding effective drugs to battle autoimmune disease was

brought home to him by his late father, who confronted him with the

issue after a long, difficult hospital stay.

" He literally grabbed my shirt, pulled me to him and with a tear in his

eye said, 'Do something about this,' " Centola said. " It was just like a

flash: 'Oh, my God, I can do something about that.' "

Riley Genomics has become that " something " for its founder.

" We've got the means to really do this, " he said.

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biologist_works_to_understand_autoimmune_disease/