News@Milner

Registration is now open for our seventh annual Symposium on Tuesday 28th June, 2022. This will be our first ever hybrid Symposium, where we will welcome up to 500 delegates in person and also live-stream the event for those who are overseas or unable to attend!  
 
We have a fantastic line-up of speakers, including Simon Boulton (Artios Pharma and The Crick Institute), Lori Passmore (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology),  Ravindra Gupta (Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease), Kristian Helin (Institute of Cancer Research), Giulia Biffi (CRUK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge), Matthias Zilbauer (Department of Paediatrics, University of Cambridge), Richard Hargreaves (Bristol Myers Squibb) and Andras Lakatos (Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge). 
 
Registration to the Symposium is free, and is open to academics and Milner affiliated companies only. For more information and to register, click here »

Have you joined the Connect: Health Tech online community yet? Through this platform you can discover, meet and collaborate with members from outside of your sector, discipline or research areas. This month we've enjoyed some fantastic content on the platform, including a podcast with Professor Jeremy Baumberg, leader in nanoscience and nanotechnology, who has worked for much of his career at the interface between academia and industry. 

Signing up to the online community platform is free and easy. To join us, please click here »

Nick Morrell
BHF Professor of Cardiopulmonary Medicine
Director, Cambridge Heart and Lung Research Institute
 
Research focus: Genomics, disease modelling, cell and molecular biology of the rare disease, pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH); translational and experimental medicine in PAH; Transforming growth factor-b and bone morphogenetic protein function in vascular disease and endothelial biology.
 
Recent advance from the lab: We created an MRC/BHF-funded cohort of 800 patients with PAH with detailed longitudinal clinical data, and initiated an international Consortium for Genetics in PAH. These cohorts are delivering novel insights into disease biology and revealing new therapeutic targets and biomarkers employing a highly collaborative multi-omics approach.

  Swietlik, Greene, Zhu et al. Circ Genom Precis Med (2020)
  Zhu, Swietlik, Welch et al. Genome Med (2021)
  Kariotis, Jammeh, Swietlik et al. Nat Commun (2021)
  Rhodes, Christopher et al. Am J Respir Crit Care Med (2022)

Key challenge for the field: Around 70% of patients with PAH still do not have a genetic diagnosis based on existing approaches. We are now interrogating the entire genomes of our cohorts to begin to identify the missing heritability in PAH, although the tools to do this are still in a state of evolution. Recognising that environmental and other factors are playing a role in PAH is a major challenge, further complicated by reduced gene penetrance in this condition. This is now being addressed through the longitudinal follow up of unaffected mutation carriers to try to identify the non-genetic triggers of disease.
 
Most exciting basic or clinical breakthrough in the past few years: The major genetic cause of PAH was discovered over 20 years ago and only now are we seeing new therapeutic approaches targeting this pathway moving into clinical trials. The results are already looking promising and it will be exciting to see how these approaches impact on the mortality and morbidity of PAH.

Who to know: Peter Atkinson, Eisai Europe 

Role: Senior Director, Head of the Global External Innovation Taskforce, Neurology Business Group.

I am based at Eisai’s EMEA HQ in Hatfield, UK and lead a global team to identify and evaluate external collaboration and investment opportunities to complement Eisai’s internal Discovery pipeline in Neurology, translating new research findings into innovative treatments for patients with neurological diseases.

Areas of current interest for Eisai:
Eisai has a long-standing history of neurology R&D with over 35 years of accumulated knowledge and experience in dementia research. In External Innovation, we are particularly interested in identifying early innovative targets and technologies that can transform treatment options for patients with neurodegenerative diseases and epilepsy. Many of the biological targets that have the strongest validation in genetic studies are complex and will likely require emerging therapeutic modalities; therefore we are considering approaches that include modulation of RNA, targeted protein degradation, gene therapies, in vivo cell conversion and digital therapeutics.  

Key industry challenge for the field:
Dementias are very complex diseases involving multiple mechanisms which start to go awry many years before symptoms are manifest and there is a great deal of patient heterogeneity. Therefore, we need to be able to identify patients early, start treating early and, most likely, use a combination of therapeutic approaches targeting various key mechanisms involved in driving pathology. Individuals may require treatment for several years, potentially before displaying overt symptoms, which brings its own ethical considerations and hurdles for balancing acceptable side effects with chronic treatment. We can still learn many important lessons from other fields such as oncology, where personalised and combination therapeutic strategies have revolutionised treatment. We are therefore excited to be part of the Milner Therapeutics Consortium, which is driving therapeutic innovation across several different diseases and promoting multidisciplinary approaches. 

Most exciting basic or clinical breakthrough in the past few years:
On the basic science side, I am excited by the development of new single cell omics technologies and the progress in spatial transcriptomics at the single cell level, which are yielding a greater understanding of the molecular profiles of cells in normal and diseased human brain. The creation of more complex human-relevant models of neurodegenerative disease using organoids is also a topic of interest. From an Eisai pipeline perspective, I am particularly excited by our tau antibody which is undergoing clinical evaluation in dominantly inherited Alzheimer’s disease. This therapeutic originated through Eisai’s collaboration between Hatfield Research Laboratories (UK) and University College London.

Find out more about Eisai’s External Innovation approach by visiting their website »

The Milner Consortium Call 2022 is open until 30th March

If you have an idea for a potential pre-clinical collaborative project that would benefit from industry expertise and know-how, you only have a few weeks left to submit a proposal to the Milner Consortium Call. To learn more and download an application form click here »

We are looking for project proposals that could provide solutions to current challenges in:

Neuroscience; Reproductive biology; Immunology & Inflammation; Infectious Disease; Metabolic & Cardiovascular disease; Microbiome; Oncology; and New technologies that will aid therapeutic discovery.

The full, updated list of research interests of the Consortium companies is available on our website and this year’s call also involves our new Consortium partner Astellas. Pre-clinical projects can range from reagent sharing and 6-month pilots to 2-year funded collaborations and are expected to lead to joint publications with the pharma partners.

If you still have questions after viewing our website, please email Nicola McCarthy, our Consortium Manager.

We are thrilled to have had five new affiliates join us since our last newsletter. Find out more about the new companies below, and click the logos to visit the company websites. News from all our affiliated companies can also be found in this section.

Human cell culture specialists, providing primary cells and iPSC derived cells with a wide range of functionally and physiologically, disease relevant backgrounds, together with optimised media and growth supplements. Axol Bioscience recently merged with Censo Biotechnologies.

A global healthcare group dedicated to improving quality of life. Their mission is to provide the most benefit total solutions with pharmaceuticals and services that contribute to improving quality of life of valued consumers.

Sengenics, a functional proteomics company, leverages its patented KREX protein folding technology to discover autoantibody biomarker signatures for drug response prediction, patient stratification and development of companion diagnostics.

Yuhan Corporation is a South Korea-based pharmaceutical company with a focus on global open innovation, which has included licensing out deals of in-house programs with Gilead, Janssen, Boehringer Ingelheim and other global pharmaceutical companies in the past four years. Yuhan welcomes collaboration opportunities in new drug assets that match strategic focus areas and is currently looking to establish a global subsidiary office in the EU.

HaplnScience, Inc. is a South Korean biotech company focusing on the research and development of breakthrough aging-related disease therapies potentially via bio-mechanical modulation of the extracellular matrix using HAPLN1 (Hyaluronan and Proteoglycan Link Protein 1), which is often reduced in degenerative tissue diseases.

 Shift Bioscience are recruiting for four new roles, to be based at the Milner Institute:  Lab Manager/Facilities Growth; Wet Lab Research Assistant; Wet Lab Validation Scientist; Bioinformatician. Read more »

 Abcam and Twist Biosciences announced a licensing agreement under which Abcam will use a proprietary Twist VHH phage library for antibody discovery, development and commercialization for diagnostic and research applications. Read more »

 Alloy Therapeutics announced a therapeutic development partnership with Champions Oncology, Inc. to develop antibodies for creation of next generation Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs). Read more »  
 
 Amgen and Plexium, Inc. have announced a worldwide, multi-year research collaboration and license agreement to identify novel targeted protein degradation therapeutics toward historically challenging drug targets. Read more »

 Benevolent AI has expanded its AI-driven drug discovery collaboration with AstraZeneca, doubling the number of disease areas being explored through the partnership. Read more »
 
 Cyclica has launched Perturba Therapeutics Inc., a spin-out from the Stagljar Lab at the University of Toronto, Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research. Perturba is advancing a pipeline of assets from undrugged protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Read more »

 Domainex announced the opening of a facility at Unity Campus in Sawston – Cambridge’s newest science and technology park – with fully equipped and operational laboratories. Read more »
 
 Eagle Genomics and Consortium companies Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb are working with The Pistoia Alliance and other pharma partners on a new microbiome project, which could help speed the advancement of new, precision medicines and treatments. Read more »
 
 Genedata announced that Charles River Laboratories has chosen Genedata Biologics® to support their rapidly expanding global biopharma operations across multiple groups in the UK and the USA. Read more »
 
 Genome Biologics have been awarded up to €9.8M of equity funding through the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator program to accelerate their innovations in cardiovascular drug discovery and development. Read more »
 
 Healx and Ovid Therapeutics have entered into an exclusive option to license rights to develop and commercialize gaboxadol, and will be investigating the compound as part of a potential combination therapy for Fragile X syndrome, as well as a treatment for other indications. Read more »

 JW Pharmaceutical announced that a potential atopic dermatitis drug licensed out to Denmark-based LEO Pharma in 2018 is entering a global phase 2b dose-ranging clinical trial. Read more »
 
 Lifebit and the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre announced a long-term partnership that will use Lifebit’s technology to power a cloud-based Trusted Research Environment (TRE), termed CYNAPSE, serving as a scalable and secure data management and analysis platform for NIHR Cambridge BRC researchers. Read more »
 
 MedAnnex announced new data for their first-in-class targeted agent, MDX-124 showing significant anti-tumour activity in preclinical pancreatic cancer models. Read more »

 OBRIZUM announced a strategic partnership with iAM Learning, a unique eLearning course creator, that will combine OBRIZUM’s highly advanced AI-driven teaching platforms and iAM Learning’s bespoke video-based learning content. Read more »

 PhoreMost and NeoCura. Ltd. announced an oncology drug discovery research collaboration that will use PhoreMost's SITESEEKER® phenotypic screening platform and NeoCura's full-process RNA drug design platform to investigate the cellular delivery and efficacy of encoded targeted peptides. Read more »