According to Newswire, the two companies, BioMotiv and Cure Network Dolby Acceleration Partners (CNDAP) partnered up together in order to create small molecules that can potentially treat various neurological disorders, including Dravet syndrome, epilepsy, and Alzheimer’s.
Dravet Syndrome Explained
Dravet syndrome is a rare genetic dysfunction of the brain that begins in the first year of life of an otherwise healthy infant. The condition is life long. Dravet syndrome is estimated to appear in 1 in 15,700 to 1 in 40,000 live births, and it affects males and females in equal populations. Risk factors for the condition include seizures that last for more than 10 minutes, seizures occurring on one side of the body, and seizures triggered by warm bath in children under 12 months old. Diagnosing a child early on is key to the best outcome and treatment for children with Dravet syndrome. To learn more about the condition, click here.
The Agreement
The partnership between the two pharmaceutical companies was influenced by research done in the Jorge Palop, Ph.D.’s laboratory at the Gladstone Institutes. The research provided that strengthening the role of interneurons also upgrades the brain’s cognitive role in Palop’s experimental models of Alzheimer’s. The partnership between the two companies is looking to apply these findings in a more clinical setting through creating small-molecule treatments that enhances the role of inhibitory interneurons.
“We look forward to working with the entire team at Cure Network Dolby Acceleration Partners to build on the foundational results of Dr. Palop’s lab at Gladstone,” said chief scientific officer at BioMotiv, Ted Torphy, Ph.D.
“By combining the research strength at Gladstone and CNDAP with our drug development expertise, we hope to develop this novel technology and apply it to a wide range of neuroscience conditions,” Ted continued.
The partnership is aiming to place their focus on treatments that could suppress epileptic activity in conjunction with enhancing cognitive abnormalities for a plethora of brain disorders. Among these include Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, childhood epilepsy, and autism.
“This new research program is very promising because it targets an especially important type of brain cell whose impairments may likely contribute to several brain diseases,” said board member David Dolby. “We’ve brought together a group of highly skilled experts to address some of the world’s most urgent scientific challenges and medical needs.”
Despite CNDAP’s newest partnership with BioMotiv, the company also partners with Gladstone and specific contract research organizations who are able to add additional expertise in other areas. The company also gets financial support from Dolby Family Ventures.
“This is a great example of how we bring together organizations with different areas of expertise in order to solve serious medical conditions for which there are only limited treatment options,” said Stephen Freeman, Ph.D., of Gladstone. “This is the future for medical research as we try to overcome devastating conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and other brain disorders.”
To learn more about this agreement and the implications it may have for the future of neurological disorders, click here.
