News
Proteostasis Therapeutics Enters into Research Collaboration
with Harvard University - Laboratory of Dr. Laurie Glimcher
-- Collaboration Focused on Evaluating New Therapeutic Targets
for Neurodegenerative Diseases --
November 16, 2010, Cambridge, Mass. - Proteostasis Therapeutics announced today that it has entered into a research collaboration with the laboratory of Laurie H. Glimcher, M.D., Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology at the Harvard School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. The collaborative work is focused on evaluating new signaling pathways important for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease. It is hoped that this collaboration will accelerate the Company’s programs aimed at developing small molecule drugs which modulate cellular “quality control” pathways for the maintenance of appropriate protein function. The pathways involved in the folding, trafficking and clearance of a cell’s complement of proteins make up the Proteostasis Network (PN). Financial terms of the collaboration were undisclosed.
Both Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease are believed to be associated with a loss of function of key proteins and pathways due to protein oligomerization, aggregation, and insufficient protein degradation. This collaboration combines expertise in specific endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress pathways investigated in Dr. Glimcher’s laboratory and Proteostasis’ proprietary technology for characterizing PN pathways in normal and disease states. Specifically, the collaboration will focus on elucidating the role of novel targets that have been identified by Proteostasis in a key protein folding pathway linked to neurodegenerative diseases. The results of these studies could lead to the identification of novel therapeutic points of intervention for Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
Peter Reinhart, Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer at Proteostasis, said, “This collaboration capitalizes on the existing synergy between Dr. Glimcher’s work and our interests in developing Proteostasis Regulators, small molecule drugs for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. The collaboration will result in a deeper understanding of ER stress in protein misfolding and aggregation, and should provide us with novel mechanistic insights to facilitate the therapeutic intervention into disease progression of Parkinson’s and Huntington’s. We are delighted to be collaborating with Dr. Glimcher and her colleagues in this important drug discovery space, where the identification of disease-modifying therapies requires novel insights and approaches to address the huge unmet patient need.”
Dr. Glimcher is a leader in utilizing biochemical and genetic approaches to elucidate molecular pathways and novel targets related to pro-inflammatory/autoimmune, metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases. She helps lead the Immunology Program at Harvard Medical School and heads the Division of Biological Sciences program at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a Member of the National Academy of Sciences. She is the former President of the American Association of Immunologists. In addition to her numerous scientific and medical advisory roles, she is on the Corporate Board of Directors of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Corporation and the Waters Corporation.
About Proteostasis Therapeutics, Inc.
Proteostasis Therapeutics is developing “Proteostasis Regulators” (PRs), small molecule drugs that restore proper protein function to treat neurodegenerative, metabolic, genetic and inflammatory disorders. The Proteostasis Network is the cellular machinery responsible for protein folding, trafficking and clearance, and can become imbalanced by the cumulative effects of aging, disease and genetics. PTI was founded by leading scientists who discovered a pioneering approach for treating disease by restoring protein network homeostasis. www.proteostasis.com
Contacts:
Proteostasis Therapeutics:
Pauline Jen Ryan
(617) 225-0096
Media:
Kari Watson
(781) 235-3060
MacDougall Biomedical Communications
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