Help to Innovate Cures

Meet our Team

We are a team of researchers at UT Austin passionate about innovating the next generation of drug discovery technologies. Our research focuses on the screening of humanized disease models to find patient-specific therapies with a unique genetic make-up. We are dedicated to implement our expertise in micro-technologies for finding new drug leads for human diseases including neuro-degenerative diseases (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and ALS diseases), rare genetic disorders, kidney diseases, infectious diseases, heart failures, and more.

Elevate Human Health and Cure Human Diseases

Biotechnology and medical science have offered modern devices for diagnostic and preventive purposes, reducing the global health differences by the provision of promising and affordable technologies. Use of technological advances has contributed immensely towards the growing public and global health needs in molecular diagnostics, medicine, and vaccines. While incredible progress is made in medicine every single day, there are still many diseases that remain a mystery to doctors and scientists with no available cures, such as for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The increase in chronic diseases and the progressive aging of the population is a source of concern for the human population. An increase in the disease complexity and differences in genetic variants that might modulate variability in drug action within an individual possess additional changes. In order to capture the variation and provide effective treatment in a rapid manner, researchers are adamant to develop humanized disease models and screen them against FDA-approved drug libraries to find patient-specific personalized therapies with a unique genetic make-up.

The Next-Generation Technologies to Identify Cures

Innovative technologies and novel disease models will help us identify, develop, and deploy new and effective cures to improve human health. Accelerating therapeutic development for chronic diseases with rare and unique genetic mutations requires patient-specific humanized models. These models will enable us to identify patient-specific drug molecules and reduce risks, time delays, and costs of advancing treatments. The new disease models require high-throughput and high-content imaging.

Our Technology

We have developed novel technologies for single-cell and multi-cellular organisms. The first large-scale screening platform utilizes the small animal model called C. elegans. We have established the first large-scale screening platform with C. elegans for multiple disease conditions including Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases. We identified compounds with high-efficacy and undocumented effects against these diseases.

What Starts Here Changes the World

Your gift today will benefit everyone’s future.

Your donation can help us nurture the innovations we are discovering and grow to our full potential. We are committed to bringing the next-generation tools to all experimental benches in the research laboratories and clinical facilities to save time, reduce cost, and expedite drug-discovery programs. Our solutions will save many patients suffering from chronic diseases and help them lead healthier and longer lives. The money that you donate will be used to:

• Test the existing disease models
• Expand our screens with diverse drug libraries
• Support laboratory research to perform drug-screens
• Develop new disease models with our strategic collaborators

The innovations that were designed and developed by our team and matured through multiple research collaborations are being demonstrated on global platforms to the international communities. With your support, we can build strategic partnerships and research collaborations to understand disease pathology, advance therapeutic interventions, and create a better future for everyone.

Thank you for helping us change the world!

More Ways to Help

Join our Team!

Are you passionate about human health? Are you curious about human diseases and wish to contribute towards the global health challenge? Come and join our team!

Be a Disease Collaborator

Do you want to study a clinical disease pathology in the humanized model system?

Our group is constantly looking for opportunities to set up pilot experiments with other academic laboratories and industry partners to develop disease-specific phenotypic assays. The automated workflow can be adapted for high-throughput studies satisfying current day industry standards. The studies hope to elucidate mechanisms and identify new interventions in patients to alleviate human life expectancy.

Our Technology Team

Ben-Yakar group is committed to developing novel imaging platforms using micro-technologies to enable large-scale screening of humanized small animal models and organoids. Through innovative ideas and a team of bright researchers, we expect to grow our portfolio beyond the four patent-pending high-throughput and high-content screening platforms. These technologies enable us to screen a large number of humanized disease models very rapidly for the first time. One of our technologies is currently being translated by a university startup for the international research and pharmaceutical communities.