Rhenovia and USC labs in US$2.3m biosimulation research programme
Rhenovia Pharma, a French biopharmaceutical company specialising in the development of drugs for Alzheimer's, has signed a four-year contract with the University of Southern California (USC) and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide biosimulation services for drug development.
Rhenovia Pharma, a French biopharmaceutical company specialising in the development of drugs for Alzheimer's, has signed a four-year contract with the University of Southern California (USC) and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide biosimulation services for drug development.
The contract is part of a Bioengineering Research Partnership Program awarded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a division of the NIH.
Two laboratories at USC, the Laboratory of Biological Sciences (LAS) under Dr Michel Baudry and the Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering (VSoE) under Dr Theodore Berger, will partner Rhenovia Pharma.
The three partners will receive US$2.3m (Euro 1.65m) in total in support of their research programmes. Rhenovia will perform a service partnership activity as subcontractor and will receive US$440,000.
The programme aims to understand the cellular mechanisms that underly brain functions and diseases, and to develop technological tools for the discovery and development of new therapeutic agents to treat brain diseases.
The objective of the academic groups is to intensify the development of mathematical modelling and computer simulation tools to explore molecular processes relevant to diseases of the brain.
Using its experience of the pharmaceutical industry and its expertise in drug discovery, Rhenovia will have the task of integrating the cellular and molecular mechanisms that serve as drug targets into these mathematical models and performing the optimisation and validations needed for their commercial application.
"The NINDS award shows that NIH scientific experts recognise the innovative nature of Rhenovia's biosimulation technology platform and demonstrates that Rhenovia can generate cash with its platforms," said Dr Serge Bischoff, ceo of Rhenovia Pharma. "This confirms our belief that Rhenovia's biosimulation approach in CNS can make a unique contribution to developing drugs for brain diseases."