A new centre dedicated to research into innovative therapies for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases is being established in the chemistry department.
A new centre dedicated to research into innovative therapies for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases is being established in the chemistry department. The Irish-headquartered pharmaceutical company Elan will invest $10 million over the first five years of the initial 10 year collaboration.
The Cambridge–Elan Centre for Research Innovation and Drug Discovery will provide an interdisciplinary environment to enable translational research. The aim is to discover novel compounds that can alter the behaviour of proteins associated with neurodegenerative disorders that can be developed into new treatments.
Work on understanding the fundamental molecular origins of these neurogenerative disorders has been ongoing in Cambridge for more than a decade, and Elan has a long-standing interest in neurodegenerative diseases. As well as looking for novel compounds the aim is for the centre to characterise the fundamental physico-chemical mechanisms by which they alter the behaviour of proteins associated with neurodegenerative disorders.
Chris Dobson, Michele Vendruscolo and Tuomas Knowles are all involved in the centre. ‘The department, and indeed the University, are very keen on the venture, and on the opportunities that exist to build on it for the future,’ Chris says.
‘The process of bringing together researchers at Cambridge and at Elan has already created novel insights and opportunities in drug discovery,’ he adds. ‘The new centre builds on the successes of this initial interaction to establish a long-term relationship to lead to novel and effective therapies for the most debilitating, costly and rapidly proliferating diseases in the modern world.’