The University of Sheffield and charity Parkinson’s UK are to collaborate on a new project to research and develop novel therapies for Parkinson’s disease, a condition which affects over 100,000 people in the UK.
A new ‘virtual biotech’ will be formed, named Keapstone Therapeutics, combining world-leading research from the university with funding and expertise from the charity.
Arthur Roach, director of research at Parkinson’s UK, said: “Due to the funding gap in early stage drug discovery, there are promising scientific breakthroughs for Parkinson’s happening every day that are not being picked up and developed by commercial companies.”
“This major new program of work will allow us to act in a similar way to a small biotech company. However, unlike a commercial company, our primary goal is the creation of new treatments to improve the lives of people with Parkinson’s, regardless of commercial considerations.”
Keapstone Therapeutics will build on over a decade of research at the university, a member of the UK’s prestigious Russell Group of leading academic centers, where researchers have pinpointed a way to trigger a possible in-built defence system that helps protect brain cells from oxidative stress.
Richard Mead from SITraN discovered a new class of compounds that can activate the brain cell defence system. Keapstone Therapeutics will now fund the chemistry specialists, Sygnature Discovery, to further develop these molecules.
Dr Mead said: “We are very excited about this new partnership with Parkinson’s UK. It is a great opportunity for us to pursue a novel drug discovery program for Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative conditions, such as motor neuron disease. We will now progress these molecules through the next stage of drug development.”
http://www.thepharmaletter.com/article/university-of-sheffield-and-parkinson-s-uk-in-new-collaboration
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