The 3D impact: Haarberg Center making progress in fight against cancer

South Dakota State University's Haarberg Drug, Disease and Delivery Research Center is spurring economic development as it progresses in finding new treatments for cancer and other diseases. 

Kevin and Lorie Haarberg had a dream. After devastating personal experiences with cancer, they wanted to transform treatment and improve outcomes by investing in research that could find new uses for existing drugs on the market.

The Haarbergs’ vision and generosity helped pave the way for the Haarberg Drug, Disease and Delivery (3D) Research Center, which was established in 2021 at South Dakota State University thanks to a five-year, $3.9 million award from the South Dakota Board of Regents and an additional $1.1 million gift from the Haarberg family.

Now four years since its inception, the Haarberg 3D Center is progressing in its mission of transforming treatment of cancer and other diseases.

Josh Reineke, associate professor in SDSU's College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, is the co-director of the Haarberg 3D Center. As Reineke explains, drug repurposing is a key focus of the research being conducted at the Haarberg 3D Center.

"Development and distribution of new drugs can consume extensive time and resources," Reineke said.

The cost of discovering and fully developing a new drug in the pharmaceutical industry translates to nearly a billion dollars and 10 to 16 years per drug. The Haarberg 3D Center’s goal is to repurpose existing drugs and delivery systems to help overcome those time and cost barriers.

"Drug repurposing involves research into the modification of existing drugs for new purposes, evaluation of existing drugs for additional or alternative applications, or reformulation of existing drugs, and it can significantly reduce the time and resources needed to bring a new treatment to the market," Reinke noted.

While cancer applications are a focus, not all projects funded by the Haarberg 3D Center are cancer related. Some have applications for other diseases. The larger goal of the Haarberg 3D Center is to move research from the lab into the marketplace.

"We want to enhance the translation of medical products," Reineke said. "That's our overarching goal."

The Haarberg 3D Center had made considerable progress on that front. Six companies have been formed thanks to funding from the Haarberg 3D Center. These companies have provided jobs for five full-time employees in South Dakota. Five researchers have applied for Small Business Innovation Research grants, and 12 patent or provisional patent applications have been developed from Haarberg 3D Center-funded projects.

"Patents can really serve an important role in terms of securing private investment," Reineke said.

Seed funding from the Haarberg Center has resulted in over $10 million in external follow-up research grants.

"That's a three to one-fold return on investment from the initial funding from the state of South Dakota and the Haarbergs," Reineke said.

The Haarberg 3D Center has also been instrumental in training the future biomedical workforce. Over 50 graduate and undergraduate students have conducted hands-on research through the center.

This summer, the Haarberg 3D Center also added Craig Silvernagel, associate professor of entrepreneurship and innovation management in SDSU's Ness School of Management and Economics, as the center's co-director, alongside Reineke. The addition of Silvernagel will help facilitate the research commercialization process.

As Silvernagel explains, research commercialization is inherently challenging. Silvernagel's role with the center — with his background in entrepreneurship and business development — is to help move research discoveries into the commercialization space.

"One of the real set pieces of value the center provides is the ability to help navigate the commercialization space," Silvernagel said. "It can be messy."

A current Haarberg 3D Center project in the early stages of the commercialization process is a chemical that can mitigate the damage of mustard gas. Brian Logue, professor and head of SDSU's Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Physics, is one of the country's leading experts on chemical warfare agents.

Thanks to funding from the Haarberg 3D Center, Logue and his research team have identified a chemical compound that can protect the skin from the long-term dermal effects of mustard gas.

"We are supporting (Logue's) work, but we've also paired him up with SoDak Solutions to find business connections and business development that can really fine tune the project," Reineke said.

As Reineke notes, South Dakota is home to its fair share of military infrastructure and equipment. A few companies based in the state are interested in Logue's chemical, not just for skin protection, but also for decontaminating military equipment from mustard gas.

"This is a great example of the sort of unexpected market discoveries that can happen," Silvernagel noted. 
"The potential economic impact of this work is huge for the state," Reineke said. "Not only is there potentially a new company being developed here, but we're facilitating existing state infrastructure as well."

Other ongoing projects funded by the Haarberg 3D Center include the development of a multicancer vaccine. Wenfeng An, an SDSU professor and pharmaceutical science researcher, is leading the vaccine's development after receiving pilot funding from the Haarberg 3D Center in 2024. The vaccine targets a retrotransposon protein that is present in many different types of cancer, which would allow it to be used as a broad-reaching cancer treatment.

In another project, Gudiseva Chandrasekher, associate professor in SDSU's College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, is developing cornea implants for transplantation purposes. Corneal transplantation, which is referred to as "keratoplasty" in ophthalmology clinics, is the most common treatment for irreparable corneal damage. In most cases, only the diseased or injured section of the cornea is replaced. Currently, the supply of implantable-quality, human-donor corneas does not meet the growing demand for transplants. Developing technologies for generating cornea-equivalents is critical to alleviate the dependence on human tissue.

The Haarberg 3D Center funds a select number of projects each year. The funding helps researchers generate their initial proof-of-concept and develop larger proposals for external funding. Each funded project has a significant technology development component that aligns with the Haarberg 3D Center's mission of advancing research commercialization of biomedical technologies.

"If you look at the short time of four years that the center has been around, I'm really proud of the impact that we have already made," Reineke said. "We are excited to build on this progress and see how much farther we can go."