Crossbeta Biosciences, Good Biomarker Sciences and U-Protein Express join forces to develop Alzheimer's disease biomarker with a grant from IPC-BioFarmind
January 27, 2012 - Utrecht & Leiden, The Netherlands
Three Dutch biotech companies with complementary activities and expertise announced today that they will collaborate to develop a biomarker assay for Alzheimer's disease. This initiative is awarded with a grant from IPC-BioFarmind.
Crossbeta Biosciences, a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of drug treatments for misfolded protein diseases and a lead program in Alzheimer's Disease, Good Biomarker Sciences, a contract research company developing and performing diagnostic assays and test strategies and U-Protein Express, a contract manufacturing organization developing and producing recombinant proteins and antibodies, join forces with the aim to develop a test that can provide a tool for Alzheimer's disease for early detection and monitoring effects of treatment.
Alzheimer's disease is the main cause of dementia and affects a large and rapidly growing number of primarily elderly people. Treating this highly debilitating disease by reversing the toxic effects in the brain is not possible yet. A diagnostic test would be a great aid to enable early treatment when damage is still limited, allowing evaluation of treatment strategies and thus helping to preserve quality of life.
"The grant from IPC-BioFarmind is exactly the trigger we needed to effectively kick our collaboration off and to initiate this joint project." "With our matching capabilities and the support from academic groups we give this biomarker development effort the best chance of success." "We are very excited about the joint development potential of our teams." "Combining protein production, protein misfolding technology and biomarker development expertise makes this Alzheimer biomarker program unique." are some of the comments made by the CEOs of Crossbeta Biosciences, Good Biomarker Biosciences and U-Protein Express.
About Crossbeta Biosciences:
Crossbeta Biosciences is a biotech company aimed at developing therapeutic applications of its crossbeta technology. This technology is based on crossbeta structures and specific epitopes in misfolded proteins. Misfolded proteins are associated with the progression of major diseases of today's Western world and aging population. This includes diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and type 2 diabetes. Crossbeta Biosciences
strives to build up a pipeline of drug candidates for misfolded protein diseases and to offer services based on its technology to identify new targets and leads for drug discovery and diagnostic (biomarker) purposes.
For further information on Crossbeta Biosciences:
Guus Scheefhals
Phone +31 (0)30 253 2668
www.crossbeta.com
About Good Biomarker Sciences:
Good Biomarker Sciences is a company with a mix of applications of biomarker assays primarily in drug intervention studies in humans, and developing new assays from scratch. In the present project the development of assays is central and focuses on oligomeric misfolded proteins relevant for Alzheimer's disease. This is made possible by the joint effort with Crossbeta Biosciences providing the oligomers and U-Protein Express providing specific ligands for the oligomers.
For further information on Good Biomarker Sciences:
Kees Kluft
Phone + 31 (0) 6 536 22221
www.gbsleiden.nl
About U-Protein Express:
U-Protein Express is a dedicated provider in the field of expression and purification of recombinant proteins. Fully post-translational modified mammalian proteins are produced via the proprietary r-PEx technology (patent pending) using HEK293EBNA1 cells. In addition the HEK293EBNA1 cell line and CHO cell lines are used in an efficient high throughput pipeline for the production of recombinant antibodies. Moreover, E. coli and P. pastoris expression platforms are available for the production of more simple proteins. Produced recombinant proteins are purified in house by state-of-the-art purification technology. Main customers are academia, biotech- and pharma companies.
For more information on U-Protein Express:
Dr. Martin Hessing
www.U-ProteinExpress.com
Phone: +31 30 253 8823 | Mail: [email protected]