Date: 2011-12-15
Type of information: R&D agreement
Compound:
Company: GSK (UK) The University of Dundee (UK)
Therapeutic area: Rare diseases - Genetic diseases - Neurodegenerative diseases
Type agreement: R&D
Action mechanism:
Disease: Huntington’s disease
Details: The University of Dundee and GSK have entered into a joint research project to tackle Huntington’s disease, an inherited brain disorder. The project looks to build on the findings of Professor Susann Schweiger, of the University of Dundee, who has discovered a mechanism that controls production of the disease-causing protein involved in Huntington’s Disease. The £1million-plus research project will be led by Professor Schweiger and her research team, along with Dr Ros Langston and Professor Jeremy Lambert from the Division of Neuroscience, located within the new Medical Research Institute at the University of Dundee, and by Dr David Gray from the University’s Drug Discovery Unit. The project brings together expertise in molecular genetics, behaviour, brain physiology and drug development in an exciting synergistic collaboration with researchers at GSK.
The University and GSK are already engaged in a similar collaboration examining another orphan disease, Recessive Dystrophic Epidermylosis Bullosa, a rare disease of the skin and mucosal linings which results in highly painful, debilitating and lifelong skin blistering and puts patients at great risk of infection and of developing certain skin cancers.
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