Date: 2015-09-14
Type of information: Grant
Company: Alzheimer’s Research UK (UK) MRC Technology (UK) Eisai (Japan) Eli Lilly (USA - IN) International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) (Italy)
Investors: Dementia Consortium (UK)
Amount: £305,000
Funding type: grant
Planned used: The grant will be used to fund a project identifying new therapeutics for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Frontotemporal Lobar degeneration (FTLD). A team at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in Trieste, Italy will join forces with London-based MRC Technology to take on the project, with funding provided by Alzheimer’s Research UK. While people with ALS and FTLD, both diseases are associated with the same biological processes. Both are characterised by the build-up of ‘protein clumps’ – aggregates of misfolded versions of a protein called TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43). This build-up can disrupt vital nerve cell communication and eventually cause nerve cell death. MRC Technology and the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Trieste have set out to tackle this lack of treatments and aim to identify agents capable of clearing misfolded proteins, which could form the basis of future much-needed drug development programmes.
Using new investment from the Dementia Consortium, a charity-private partnership between Alzheimer’s Research UK, MRC Technology and the pharmaceutical companies Eisai and Lilly, researchers at ICGEB will develop assays and perform high-content screening to test libraries of potential compounds for their ability to clear clumps of misfolded TDP-43. The two research teams will work in partnership to test promising drugs in cells and animals, to understand how they work and explore whether they can improve symptoms of ALS and FTLD.
Others: * On September 14, 2015, the Dementia Consortium has awarded £305,000 of funding to a project identifying new therapeutics for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Frontotemporal Lobar degeneration (FTLD). A team at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in Trieste, Italy will join forces with London-based MRC Technology to take on the project, with funding provided by Alzheimer’s Research UK.
The Dementia Consortium is a £3m drug discovery collaboration between Alzheimer’s Research UK, MRC Technology and the pharmaceutical companies Eisai and Lilly. By uniting expertise, this focused cash injection will bridge the gap between academic research and the pharmaceutical industry in the search for new drugs to slow the development of neurodegenerative diseases that cause dementia.
Therapeutic area: Rare diseases - Neurodegenerative diseases
