Verge Genomics Announces Research Collaboration With The Sheffield Institute For Translational Neuroscience

A collaboration focused on the validation of new drug targets for the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) - Verge Genomics, a drug discovery company developing therapies for neurological diseases by integrating a unique all-in-human genomic platform with machine learning, announced today that it has formed a research collaboration with the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN), an international center of excellence for basic applied research in neurodegenerative disease at the University of Sheffield, in order to accelerate the biological validation of novel drug targets and the screening of new drug compounds being developed by Verge for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Through this collaboration Verge aims to increase the speed at which therapeutic candidates may be validated and advanced to the clinic.

"This collaboration strengthens our mission to find treatments for patients with neurodegenerative diseases,'' said Jane Rhodes, CBO of Verge Genomics. “We are extremely excited about the opportunity to work with Dr. Heather Mortiboys at SITraN, an internationally recognized expert in Parkinson's disease, whose research in areas such as mitochondrial biology and lysosomal function very effectively complement our work at Verge.”

“With SITraN’s deep scientific expertise and sophisticated translational assay platforms, combined with Verge Genomics drug discovery capabilities this collaboration promises to be highly productive. Together it will bring us closer to disease modifying therapeutics for patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease,” said Dr. Heather Mortiboys, lead investigator at SITraN.

Verge has conducted extensive research to discover new drug targets for Parkinson’s disease, a long-term neurodegenerative disorder affecting nearly one million people in the U.S. that affects the motor system, usually presenting hand tremors as well as limb rigidity and gait and posture disturbances. While medications aimed at symptom control do exist, there is no cure for Parkinson’s disease, and the disease invariably progresses with time. Investigator, Dr. Heather Mortiboys at SITraN has established a large number of high throughput screening (HTS) assays investigating mitochondrial function and morphology in cells derived from patients with Parkinson’s disease. These assays are in routine use by SITraN scientists, and enable the testing of large numbers of chemical substances for biological activity more rapidly than conventional methods.

Under the research collaboration, SITraN, which is based at the University of Sheffield, will use their unique assay technology to validate Verge’s novel drug targets and screen Verge’s drug compounds under development for Parkinson’s disease with the goal of identifying the most promising candidates for future clinical studies.

About Verge Genomics
Verge is focused on developing therapeutics for neurological diseases using human genomics to accelerate drug discovery. Verge has created a proprietary all-in-human platform, generating one of the field’s largest and most comprehensive databases of ALS and Parkinson’s Disease patient genomic data. The Company is led by experienced computational biologists and drug developers who are successfully advancing therapeutic programs in ALS and Parkinson’s disease toward the clinic. For additional information, please visit http://www.vergegenomics.com.

About the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN)
SITraN is a purpose-built institute at the University of Sheffield, in Sheffield, England, which combines basic scientists, clinicians, research nurses and bioinformaticians in order to translate laboratory-based scientific discoveries into clinical studies and patient benefit as quickly as possible. The key vision of SITraN is to develop an international centre of excellence from basic research to applied science in neurodegenerative disease to complement the existing partnerships of academic research groups, government and charitable research funding bodies the pharmaceutical industry and the health care sector. It houses a state of the art drug screening facility which houses amongst others drug storage and dispensing equipment in addition to several high content imagers and endpoint assay readers. For more information, please visit http://www.sitran.org.