Oncor, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine deal

ONC's OncorPharm subsidiary acquired an exclusive worldwide license to diagnostic and therapeutic applications of a highly prevalent mutation of the human beta-3 adrenergic receptor (beta-3 AR). The mutation, discovered at Johns Hopkins, appears to play a role in determining the rate at which the body metabolizes food, ONC said. Patients with the mutation tend to burn fewer calories as heat and store more as fat. Patients with two copies of the mutant gene tend to become overweight and are more likely to develop obesity-related disorders such as diabetes, high blood pressure and arterial blockage. ...