The Health Research BC Match Program is supporting a research program led by Dr. Joerg Bohlmann and his team at UBC, funded by GlycoNet, a Canadian national research network focused on glycomics, the study of carbohydrates. The project includes international collaborators from The Netherlands and South Africa, as well as industry and government partners across Canada.
Dr. Bohlmann is a professor and Distinguished University Scholar at the UBC Michael Smith Laboratories. The team also includes co-principal investigators with expertise and programs spanning chemistry, medicine, and health care research and development.
The project is developing a novel treatment option for Type 2 diabetes (T2D), a defining disease of the 21st century. More than 500 million people worldwide currently live with T2D, and that number is expected to increase to 1.3 billion by 2050.
Managing blood glucose levels is central to treating T2D. Current approaches often involve a combination of diet management, blood glucose monitoring, medications that may have serious long-term side effects, and insulin injections. These treatment approaches can significantly impact quality of life.
UBC researchers discovered that a plant-derived natural product called montbretin A (MbA) selectively inhibits pancreatic alpha-amylase, the enzyme responsible for starch digestion. In animal models of T2D, this resulted in effective control of blood glucose levels. The team received Health Canada approval to advance MbA into Phase 1 clinical trials as a potential new treatment option for T2D.
However, MbA is an extremely rare natural product. It exists only in small amounts within montbretia (Crocosmia) plants, making natural production insufficient for commercialization. Its chemical complexity also means it cannot currently be produced through chemical or chemo-enzymatic synthesis.
To address this supply challenge and advance commercialization, the team is developing bioengineered production systems for MbA using yeast and the plant Nicotiana benthamiana (Nb).
This innovation builds on more than a decade of multidisciplinary research at UBC across Chemistry, Biochemistry, the Michael Smith Laboratories, Family Medicine, and the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute.
The team has already reached several milestones. They discovered the complete MbA biosynthetic system using transcriptomics and metabolomics (Technology Readiness Level 2). They established proof-of-concept MbA production in bioengineered yeast and Nicotiana benthamiana (TRL 3). Through an industry partnership with PlantForm Corp., they developed industrial Nicotiana benthamiana lines for MbA production (TRL 4). They also developed an intellectual property and patent portfolio around MbA applications and production systems (TRL 3), and launched Phase 1 clinical trials (TRL 4).
This project aims to advance the MbA innovation to Technology Readiness Level 5 through four key activities:
• Improve MbA yields in bioengineered production systems
• Optimize MbA purification protocols
• Protect new intellectual property
• Complete analysis of Phase 1 safety and tolerability data and design follow-up efficacy trials
The anticipated outcomes include improved and scalable MbA production systems, scalable purification processes, expanded intellectual property protection, and clinical trial evidence supporting safety and tolerability. The project also aims to secure approval and begin efficacy studies in T2D patients.
Achieving key milestones across these activities will significantly reduce commercialization risks and strengthen the pathway to market. Ultimately, the project aims to deliver value for patients and health care providers while addressing a critical need in the treatment of Type 2 diabetes.