̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Christopher Dobson

Cambridge spin-out company wins £18m to fight Alzheimer's

plc32 — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 10:27:38 +0000

A biopharmaceutical company set-up by Cambridge academics from St John's College to develop drugs to treat illnesses such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson’s and more than 50 other related diseases has won £18 million in a Series A financing round.

Wren Therapeutics raised the funding from an international syndicate led by ̽��ֱ��Baupost Group with participation from LifeForce Capital and a number of high net worth individual investors.

Several of the company’s scientific founders are members of St John’s, including Professor Sir Christopher Dobson, Master of St John's, Professor Tuomas Knowles, a St John's Fellow, and Dr Samuel Cohen, the St John’s Entrepreneur in Residence.

Wren Therapeutics focuses on drug discovery and development for protein misfolding diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and was founded in 2016.

Protein molecules form the machinery which carry out all of the executive functions in living systems. However, proteins sometimes malfunction and become misfolded, leading to a complex chain of molecular events that can cause long-lasting damage to the health of people affected and may ultimately lead to death.

This group of medical disorders are known as protein misfolding diseases. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are widely recognised protein misfolding diseases, but others include type-2 diabetes, motor neurone disease and more than 50 other related illnesses.

Dr. Cohen explained: “Protein misfolding diseases are one of the most critical global healthcare challenges of the 21st century but are highly complex and challenging to address. Current strategies - in particular those driven by traditional drug discovery and biological approaches - have proven, at least to date, to be ineffective.

“Wren’s new and unique approach is instead built on concepts from the physical sciences and focuses on the chemical kinetics of the protein misfolding process, creating a predictive and quantitatively driven platform that has the potential to radically advance drug discovery in this class of diseases.”

Wren Therapeutics is a spin-off company from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Lund ̽��ֱ�� in Sweden. ̽��ֱ��company is based at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, in the recently opened Chemistry of Health Centre, and plans on opening a satellite office in Boston, Massachusetts.

Professor Sir Christopher Dobson said: "Wren is built on many years of highly collaborative, uniquely integrated, interdisciplinary research that has uncovered the key molecular mechanisms associated with protein misfolding diseases.

"I am hugely enthusiastic about our ability to make tangible progress against these diseases and change the course of life for millions of people around the world suffering from these debilitating and increasingly common medical disorders.”

̽��ֱ��company will announce its board of directors shortly.

Wren Therapeutics secures £18 million in funding to tackle protein misfolding diseases.

"I am hugely enthusiastic about our ability to make tangible progress against these diseases"

Professor Sir Christopher Dobson

Dr Samuel Cohen, Entrepreneur in Residence at St John's and CEO of Wren Therapeutics

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Yes

Scientists reveal plan to target the cause of Alzheimer’s disease

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 19:00:00 +0000

Academics at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and at Lund ̽��ֱ�� in Sweden have devised the first strategy to ‘go after’ the cause of the devastating disease, which could eventually lead to the development of new drugs to treat dementia. Their findings are reported in the journal PNAS.

“This is the first time that a systematic method to go after the pathogens – the cause of Alzheimer’s disease - has been proposed,” said Professor Michele Vendruscolo from Cambridge’s Department of Chemistry, the paper’s senior author. “Until very recently scientists couldn’t agree on what the cause was so we didn’t have a target. As the pathogens have now been identified as small clumps of proteins known as oligomers, we have been able to develop a strategy to aim drugs at these toxic particles.”

Alzheimer’s disease leads to the death of nerve cells and tissue loss throughout the brain. Over time, the brain shrinks dramatically and the cell destruction causes memory failure, personality changes, and problems carrying out daily activities.

Scientists identified abnormal deposits called protein oligomers as the most likely suspects of the cause of dementia. Although proteins are normally responsible for important cell processes, when people have Alzheimer’s disease these proteins become rogue, form clumps and kill healthy nerve cells.

“A healthy brain has a quality control system that effectively disposes of potentially dangerous masses of proteins, known as aggregates,” said Vendruscolo. “As we age, the brain becomes less able to get rid of the dangerous deposits, leading to disease. It is like a household recycling system, if you have an efficient system in place then the clutter gets disposed of in a timely manner. If not, over time, you slowly but steadily accumulate junk that you don’t need. It is the same in the brain.”

̽��ֱ��research was carried out by an international team of scientists that also included Professor Sir Christopher Dobson, Master of St John's College, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, at the Centre for Misfolding Diseases (CMD), which he co-founded. “This interdisciplinary study shows that it is possible not just to find compounds that target the toxic oligomers that give rise to neurodegenerative disorders but also to increase their potency in a rational manner,” he said. “It now makes it possible to design molecules that have specific effects on the various stages of disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, and hopefully to convert them into drugs that can be used in a clinical environment.”

There have been approximately 400 clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease but none of them has specifically targeted the pathogens that cause it. In the UK, dementia is the only condition in the top 10 causes of death without a treatment to prevent, cure or slow its progression.

“Our research is based on the major conceptual step of identifying protein oligomers as the pathogens and reports a method to systematically develop compounds to target them. This approach enables a new drug discovery strategy,” said Vendruscolo.

̽��ֱ��team believes their first drug candidates could reach clinical trials in around two years. They have co-founded Wren Therapeutics, a biotechnology company based in the newly opened Chemistry of Health building, whose mission is to take the ideas developed at Cambridge and translate them into finding new ways to diagnose and treat Alzheimer’s disease and other misfolding disorders.

̽��ֱ��group’s new strategy is based on a chemical kinetics approach developed in the last ten years by scientists led jointly by Professor Tuomas Knowles, also a Fellow at St John's College, Professor Dobson and Professor Vendruscolo, working at the new centre in Cambridge, in collaboration with scientists at Lund ̽��ֱ�� led by Professor Sara Linse.

“Since the process of aggregation is highly dynamic, the framework of kinetics allows us to approach this problem in a new way and find approaches to stop the generation of toxic proteins species at their very source,” said Knowles.

“This is a detailed academic study looking at how quickly compounds are able to stop amyloid building up into toxic clumps, which are characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr David Reynolds, Chief Scientific Officer from Alzheimer’s Research UK. “With no treatments to slow or stop the diseases that cause dementia, it’s vital we improve approaches like this that could help refine the drug discovery progress and accelerate new treatments for people living with Alzheimer’s.”

Reference:
Sean Chia et al. ‘SAR by kinetics for drug discovery in protein misfolding diseases.’ PNAS (2018). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1807884115

Adapted from a St John’s College press release.

Researchers have developed a new way to target the toxic particles that destroy healthy brain cells in Alzheimer’s disease.

This is the first time that a systematic method to go after the pathogens – the cause of Alzheimer’s disease - has been proposed.

Michele Vendruscolo

Kateryna Kon

Conceptual image showing blurred brain with loss of neuronal networks

Yes

New research facility for neurodegenerative disorders opened in Cambridge

sc604 — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 10:52:08 +0000

̽��ֱ��building houses the Centre for Misfolding Diseases, a world-leading research facility focused on the misfolding of proteins in human cells - a phenomenon that causes a number of disorders including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Motor Neurone Diseases.

̽��ֱ��building has been funded by £17.6 million from Research England’s UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF), as well as with contributions from Elan Pharmaceuticals and AstraZeneca.

Among the philanthropic contributions to the project is a donation of £5 million from Cambridge alumnus Derek Finlay in memory of his wife, Una, who died in May 2016 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. ̽��ֱ��first-floor laboratory is named the Una Finlay Laboratory in her memory and as the name-plaque was unveiled, Mr Finlay said: “This is a special and very poignant day for myself and my family. This building will enable world-class research that will speed up the search for ways to delay, ameliorate and – I believe – ultimately abolish these dreadful neurodegenerative diseases.”

“ ̽��ֱ��research carried out in this new facility has the potential to affect millions of lives around the world for the better,” said Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen Toope, who opened the building today. “Through collaboration and the sharing of ideas, our research teams will work to find the keys that unlock the mysteries of neurodegenerative disorders, one of the greatest health problems of our age.”

A 2015 report suggested that by 2030, there will be 75 million people worldwide living with Alzheimer’s disease. While the number of cases of Alzheimer’s diseases and other neurodegenerative disorders continues to rise, so too do the costs to society, both economic and emotional.

̽��ֱ��Centre for Misfolding Diseases is co-directed by Professor Sir Christopher Dobson, Professor Tuomas Knowles and Professor Michele Vendruscolo, three world leaders in their fields who have been studying the molecular origins of neurodegenerative diseases.

“This building will for the first time bring together a large number of scientists from different disciplines who are dedicated to establishing the molecular basis of neurodegenerative disorders and to identifying new ways for treating or preventing these debilitating conditions,” said Dobson.

“ ̽��ֱ��treatment of neurodegenerative disorders represents a major challenge, requiring both the development of innovative biophysical approaches and their translation into diagnostic and therapeutic tools,” said Vendruscolo. “With this new building, we have created favourable conditions to combine these two steps.”

“This facility will be a crucial element in helping us to tackle the challenge of understanding the molecular mechanisms of dementia and develop effective ways to counteract them,” said Knowles.

̽��ֱ��new building is also home to a Chemistry of Health Incubator, which will enable closer collaborations between researchers and industry and host spin-out companies in order to increase the rate at which scientific discoveries are translated into new therapies. ̽��ֱ��new incubator is the first in Cambridge to be directly integrated into a ̽��ֱ�� department, and will provide the resources and complementary know-how required to ensure that fundamental research is ultimately used to develop new treatments for patients. ̽��ֱ��first spin-out company to move into the Incubator will be Wren Therapeutics, which is based on a ground-breaking drug discovery method for neurodegenerative disorders developed at the Centre for Misfolding Diseases.

̽��ֱ��Chemistry of Health building, a new facility dedicated to the use of chemical techniques to combat disease, in particular neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, was officially opened today in Cambridge.

L-R: Vice Chancellor; Derek Finlay; Fiona Finlay; Dame Fiona Reynolds, Master of Emmanuel College; Lord Wilson, former Master of Emmanuel College; and Professor Sir Christopher Dobson

Yes

Cambridge academics recognised in Queen’s Birthday Honours 2018

ts657 — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 21:30:00 +0000

Professor Mary Beard was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) while Master of St John's College, Professor Christopher Dobson, was awarded a Knights Bachelor and Dr Richard Henderson, Emeritus Fellow of Darwin College and Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi College, was recognised with a Companion of Honour.

Three other Newnham College alumnae joined Professor Beard in becoming Dames in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2018, announced today - actor Emma Thompson, civil servant and diversity champion Sue Owen, and local government CEO Stella Manzie.

They join a range of women honoured for women at the forefront of their professions or who have championed women’s rights to coincide with the 100th anniversary year of women’s suffrage.

Dame Mary has been recognised for her services to the study of Classical Civilisation.

She said: “I am absolutely 100% delighted – especially to realise that Classical Civilisation is still taken seriously enough to be recognised in this way.

"That said, I expect a good few jokes about pantomime dames!”

Beard’s work on classical civilisation has been matched by her engaging TV work and an inspiration teaching that together have brought the classics to hundreds of thousands of people world-wide – and to hundreds of students at Cambridge ̽��ֱ��.

Her latest work, Women and Power, investigates the roots of the silencing of women in the Classical period, taking it forward into the present day.

But she will be remembered by generations of undergraduates, not as the famous figure on the television screens, or even the fearless debater of Twitter, but as their supervisor.

Newnham classics student Charlie Pemberton said: “It was Mary who encouraged me to apply to Cambridge and indeed Newnham in the first place: we had emailed a bit when I was in sixth form, before she met me at a Newnham Classics Open Day."

“As a supervisor, she is incredibly fair: she gives praise when it is due, but isn’t afraid to tell you when you’ve been a numpty (to put it lightly...!). Her warning never to take a source at face value - to do some digging to discover what it’s really getting at - proved invaluable in my exams.

"She didn’t just teach us the material, but how to handle or think with the material - and she makes the material so accessible and memorable. There is something so special about Newnham Classics, and I think Mary has come to symbolise that.”

Beard is herself an alumna of Newnham College, Cambridge, where she first studied Classics in 1973. She returned as a Fellow in 1984, at the time the only female lecturer in the Classics Faculty. She became Professor of Classics at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge in 2004.

Dame Carol Black, Principal of Newnham College, says: “This is well-deserved recognition of the outstanding contribution that Mary has made to the study of Classics and the promotion of public understanding of classical civilisation, a further accolade in Newnham’s highly-distinguished tradition in Classics.”

̽��ֱ��Master of St John’s was honoured with a knighthood in recognition of his ground-breaking research into Alzheimer’s disease

Professor Christopher Dobson has been was awarded a Knights Bachelor in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2018 to commemorate his illustrious scientific career.

Sir Christopher was recognised for his contributions to Science and Higher Education.

Sir Christopher is one of the world’s leading scientists working at the interface of the physical and biological sciences. Among other high-profile scientific achievements, in 2013 he co-founded the £50 million Cambridge Centre for Misfolding Diseases (CMD).

Scientists at the Centre focus on analysing the origins of neurodegenerative conditions - such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases - which occur because of ‘misfolded’ protein molecules. ̽��ֱ��experimental work by Sir Christopher and his inter-disciplinary research team has led to remarkable breakthroughs in the field.

Sir Christopher said he was astonished to have been made a knight and dedicated the honour to his students and scientific colleagues.

He said: “I am truly humbled to receive this remarkable honour. It would not have been possible without the brilliance and dedication of my students and scientific colleagues over many years, whose commitment to improving the lives of those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions is deeply impressive.”

“It also recognises the commitment of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, and the UK Higher Education sector in general, to educating to the highest possible standards the most able and deserving students on whose shoulders the future of the world depends.”

Sir Christopher was educated at the ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford and became an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Harvard ̽��ֱ�� before he returned to Oxford as Professor of Chemistry.

In 2001 he moved from Oxford to the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge when he was appointed as the John Humphrey Plummer Professor of Chemical and Structural Biology and elected a Fellow of St John’s College. He became Master of St John’s College in 2007.

Sir Christopher said: “I cannot express strongly enough how much I have valued the inspiration, encouragement, support and friendship that I have received at St John’s from students, staff, Fellows and alumni, and how important the intellectual and cultural environment that exists in this truly remarkable College has been for my scientific activities.”

Professor Tuomas Knowles, a co-founder of CMD and a Fellow of St John’s, said: “Sir Christopher's landmark discoveries over the past 30 years have truly transformed our understanding of misfolding diseases.

“His work has had enormous influence throughout the physical, biological and medical sciences, establishing new connections, and generating wide-reaching implications for molecular medicine. It is wonderful that such an eminent scientist and influential and inspiring leader has been recognised with this honour.”

Sir Christopher also paid tribute to his friends and family for their “unstinting support”.

He added: “On a personal note, I want to thank my friends, family and colleagues, and especially my wife, Mary, and children, Richard and William, for their fantastic encouragement throughout my life and career.”

Nobel prize winner and pioneer of electron microscopy Dr Richard Henderson was awarded the Companion of Honour.

Dr Henderson, an Emeritus Fellow of Darwin College and alumnus of Corpus Christi College where he is an Honorary Fellow, shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017 for his work developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution.

He achieved a quantum leap in imaging techniques when his work allowing atomic structure determinations of many proteins that were previously impossible to obtain, provided important insights into biological functions and mechanisms that will enhance the study of diseases such as neurodegenerative and infections diseases and cancer.

Dr Henderson said: “It is a great honour to join such a distinguished group of people from all walks of life. My scientific mentors Max Perutz and César Milstein were earlier Companions of Honour, so it is a great delight to me to be able to continue in this tradition.”

Professor Mary Fowler, Master of Darwin College, said: "I am delighted that Darwin College Fellow Richard Henderson has been appointed a Companion of Honour - this and his Nobel Prize are richly deserved indeed. Richard's skill and his immense dedication benefit us all, bringing hope for much needed treatments for a wide range of diseases."

Many more alumni were honoured, with a CBE for television presenter and author Bamber Gascoigne (Magdalene) and knighthoods for historian and broadcaster Professor Simon Schama (Christ's) and Government barrister James Eadie (Magdalene). Dr Darrin Disley (Trinity Hall) was honoured with an OBE for services to business, enterprise and health while fellow Trinity Hall alumnus David Eyton was honoured with a CBE for services to engineering and energy.

Honorary Magdalene Fellow Sir Christopher Greenwood was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (GBE) while Professor Jane Marshall (Murray Edwards) was given an Order of the British Empire for services to Education in Health Sciences. Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, Professor Chris Husbands (Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam ̽��ֱ��) received a knighthood for services to higher education.

Thomas Adès (King's), received a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to music. Professor Nicholas Marston, Vice-Provost and Director of Studies in Music at King's College, said: "It is excellent to see artistic creativity in the UK being recognised in this fashion.

"King’s College can boast a remarkable line of composers across many generations; among contemporary figures, Tom Adès stands together with Judith Weir and George Benjamin as one of our many distinguished alumni whose musical and creative talents not only bring lustre to the College but – more importantly – enrich the lives of many people in this country and around the world.

"We congratulate him very warmly."

Leaders in fields from classics to Alzheimer’s research are recognised today in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.

I am absolutely 100% delighted – especially to realise that Classical Civilisation is still taken seriously enough to be recognised in this way. That said, I expect a good few jokes about pantomime dames!

Professor Mary Beard

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Yes

Brain cholesterol associated with increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease

sc604 — Mon, 07 May 2018 15:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��international team, led by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, have found that in the brain, cholesterol acts as a catalyst which triggers the formation of the toxic clusters of the amyloid-beta protein, which is a central player in the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

̽��ֱ��results, published in the journal Nature Chemistry, represent another step towards a possible treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, which affects millions worldwide. ̽��ֱ��study’s identification of a new pathway in the brain where amyloid-beta sticks together, or aggregates, could represent a new target for potential therapeutics.

It is unclear if the results have any implications for dietary cholesterol, as cholesterol does not cross the blood-brain barrier. Other studies have also found an association between cholesterol and the condition, since some genes which process cholesterol in the brain have been associated with Alzheimer’s disease, but the mechanism behind this link is not known.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge researchers found that cholesterol, which is one of the main components of cell walls in neurons, can trigger amyloid-beta molecules to aggregate. ̽��ֱ��aggregation of amyloid-beta eventually leads to the formation of amyloid plaques, in a toxic chain reaction that leads to the death of brain cells.

While the link between amyloid-beta and Alzheimer’s disease is well-established, what has baffled researchers to date is how amyloid-beta starts to aggregate in the brain, as it is typically present at very low levels.

“ ̽��ֱ��levels of amyloid-beta normally found in the brain are about a thousand times lower than we require to observe it aggregating in the laboratory – so what happens in the brain to make it aggregate?” said Professor Michele Vendruscolo of Cambridge’s Centre for Misfolding Diseases, who led the research.

Using a kinetic approach developed over the last decade by the Cambridge team and their collaborators at Lund ̽��ֱ�� in Sweden, the researchers found in in vitro studies that the presence of cholesterol in cell membranes can act as a trigger for the aggregation of amyloid-beta.

“It's exciting to see that the kinetic analysis approach that we have developed over the past few years is now allowing us to explore increasingly complex systems, including protein-lipid interactions which are likely to be central for the initiation of aberrant protein aggregation,” said co-author Professor Tuomas Knowles.

Since amyloid-beta is normally present in such small quantities in the brain, the molecules don’t normally find each other and stick together. Amyloid-beta does attach itself to lipid molecules, however, which are sticky and insoluble. In the case of Alzheimer’s disease, the amyloid-beta molecules stick to the lipid cell membranes that contain cholesterol. Once stuck close together on these cell membranes, the amyloid-beta molecules have a greater chance to come into contact with each other and start to aggregate – in fact, the researchers found that cholesterol speeds up the aggregation of amyloid-beta by a factor of 20.

So what, if anything, can be done to control cholesterol in the brain? According to Vendruscolo, it’s not cholesterol itself that is the problem. “ ̽��ֱ��question for us now is not how to eliminate cholesterol from the brain, but about how to control cholesterol’s role in Alzheimer’s disease through the regulation of its interaction with amyloid-beta,” he said. “We’re not saying that cholesterol is the only trigger for the aggregation process, but it’s certainly one of them.”

Since it is insoluble, while travelling towards its destination in lipid membranes, cholesterol is never left around by itself, either in the blood or the brain: it has to be carried around by certain dedicated proteins, such as ApoE, a mutation of which has already been identified as a major risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. As we age, these protein carriers, as well as other proteins that control the balance, or homeostasis, of cholesterol in the brain become less effective. In turn, the homeostasis of amyloid-beta and hundreds of other proteins in the brain is broken. By targeting the newly-identified link between amyloid-beta and cholesterol, it could be possible to design therapeutics which maintain cholesterol homeostasis, and consequently amyloid-beta homeostasis, in the brain.

“This work has helped us narrow down a specific question in the field of Alzheimer’s research,” said Vendruscolo. “We now need to understand in more detail how the balance of cholesterol is maintained in the brain in order to find ways to inactivate a trigger of amyloid-beta aggregation.”

Co-author Professor Chris Dobson, also a member of the Centre for Misfolding Diseases and Master of St John's College, added “This study has added significantly to our understanding of the molecular basis of aggregation of amyloid-beta, which is associated with Alzheimer’s disease. It shows how interdisciplinary studies fostered by the Centre for Misfolding Diseases, and our international collaborators can play a major part in working out how to develop potential therapeutic strategies to reduce the risk of the onset and progression of this highly debilitating and increasingly common disease.”

Dr Tim Shakespeare of the Alzheimer’s Society said: “Previous research has shown people with high cholesterol levels in mid-life are slightly more likely to develop dementia, but until now we didn’t know why. This study has demystified the link. ̽��ֱ��findings suggest managing cholesterol levels in the brain could be a target for future treatments, but it’s still unclear whether there’s any effect from our diet.”

Dr David Reynolds of Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “Around 20 per cent of the body’s total cholesterol is found in the brain. Cholesterol in our diet can have a big impact on heart health and maintaining a healthy blood supply to the brain can help to keep dementia risk as low as possible.”

Reference:
Johnny Habchi et al. ‘Cholesterol catalyses amyloid-β42 aggregation through a heterogeneous nucleation pathway in the presence of lipid membranes.’ Nature Chemistry (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41557-018-0031-x

Researchers have shown how cholesterol – a molecule normally linked with cardiovascular diseases – may also play an important role in the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

̽��ֱ��question for us now is not how to eliminate cholesterol from the brain, but about how to control cholesterol’s role in Alzheimer’s disease through the regulation of its interaction with amyloid-beta.

Michele Vendruscolo

NIH Image Gallery

Mouse model of Alzheimer's disease

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Licence type:

Attribution-Noncommerical

Stephen Hawking endorses new £50 million centre

ps748 — Fri, 27 Oct 2017 13:57:05 +0000

̽��ֱ��Centre for Misfolding Diseases has been established to tackle some of the world’s most devastating diseases. Many of the neurodegenerative diseases are currently incurable and represent a huge burden for an ageing society, potentially crippling healthcare systems with costs that already exceed those associated with cancer and heart conditions combined.

̽��ֱ��Centre brings together leading researchers from across the full spectrum of scientific disciplines – spanning applied mathematics, engineering, physics, chemistry, biology and medicine – to study the molecular origins of neurodegenerative diseases. A central theme of its activities is the use of principles from the physical and chemical sciences to address these complex biological and medical problems. ̽��ֱ��understanding created through this distinctive approach enables novel therapeutic strategies to be established that go beyond the traditional approaches that have so far led to systematic failures in clinical trials.

Jointly led by Professors Christopher Dobson, Tuomas Knowles and Michele Vendruscolo, the Centre’s significance has been underlined by the philanthropic support it has received. ̽��ֱ��programme began when a gift of £20 million was made by Elan Corporation plc, led by Kelly Martin and Robert Ingram, to catalyse its creation; earlier this year Cambridge alumnus R. Derek Finlay donated £5 million to fund the completion of the Chemistry of Health Laboratory, within the Department of Chemistry, and establish state-of-the-art laboratories for the Centre within the new building.

̽��ֱ��resulting research environment will provide an ideal setting not just for scientists based in Cambridge but also for hosting internationally leading researchers at all stages of their careers, ensuring that cutting-edge research will continue to be carried out in this vital area in the long term.

̽��ֱ��overall vision underpinning the Chemistry of Health Laboratory, and the Centre for Misfolding Diseases within it, is that the investigations into the fundamental basis of disease will be carried out in an environment that fosters cross-fertilisation between academic and industrial research efforts, accelerating the road from basic discoveries to effective therapies.

In addition to fundamental science, the new building will house a Chemistry of Health Incubator that will respond to the need for closer integration between the ̽��ֱ�� and industry and aim to increase the rate at which scientific breakthroughs are translated into new therapies. ̽��ֱ��incubator will provide the resources and complementary know-how required to ensure that fundamental research is ultimately used to develop new treatments for patients in this area where there is a tremendous unmet need.

Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor Emeritus; Kelly Martin; and Professor Chris Dobson, Master of St John’s College, at a recent event held at St John’s to mark the support received for the Centre for Misfolding Diseases.

Professor Dobson said: “ ̽��ֱ��tremendous level of support that we have received has given us the freedom and resources to attract to our Centre the best and brightest students and research fellows from around the world, experts in disciplines ranging from mathematics to medicine. It has enabled us to set up and develop a comprehensive and highly innovative programme of research, that I believe is unique, in an area of scientific endeavour where progress has the potential to change to lives of millions of people around the world who are affected directly or indirectly by the tragedy of neurodegenerative disease.”

Speaking about the work of the Centre, Professor Stephen Hawking, who has had motor neurone disease for over 50 years, said: 'I am very pleased to give my strongest support to the activities of this new Centre in its quest to define the molecular origins of these debilitating diseases. I hope the work that is carried out in the Centre will lead to the discovery of novel and effective therapeutic strategies.”

Professor Vendruscolo commented: “ ̽��ֱ��failure so far of traditional drug discovery programmes for these diseases provides us with a strong indication that new strategies are needed. By building on our understanding of the fundamental processes underlying neurodegeneration and on the methods that we are developing for characterising them in a highly quantitative manner, we are creating novel routes and opportunities to introduce effective therapies.” Professor Knowles added: “We are increasingly accessing a picture of how molecular malfunction can lead to disease, with the aim of working towards intervening where it matters the most.”

Stephen Hill, Chairman of Alzheimer’s Society, added: "I am delighted to welcome such an important and exciting development in the fight against some of the most damaging and debilitating diseases that we face as a society today. Across the world there are 40 million people who suffer from Alzheimer’s – a number projected to rise to 135 million by 2050. It is only through the research efforts of centres of excellence such as this that we can have any hope that these diseases will not blight the lives of so many in the future.”

Click here for more information about the Centre.

Gifts totalling more than £32 million, together with government funds of over £17 million, have enabled the launch of a highly innovative Centre in Cambridge that is pioneering new approaches to understand and treat neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, motor neurone disease and frontotemporal dementia.

̽��ֱ��failure so far of traditional drug discovery programmes for these diseases provides us with a strong indication that new strategies are needed

Prof. Michele Vendruscolo

Scan showing human brain

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Yes

Cambridge's Chemistry of Health programme awarded £17 million in funding

sc604 — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 14:04:29 +0000

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� has been awarded more than £17 million in funding to support research into the molecular origins of human disease, particularly neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, and to accelerate the development new diagnostic and therapeutic methods of treating them.

̽��ֱ��funding has been awarded from the fourth round of the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF). Seven university research projects from across the UK will receive over £100 million of investment in 2016-17, to drive innovation and economic growth.

̽��ֱ��projects will promote the development of world-leading research in a range of subject areas, from semiconductors to neuroscience, and have collectively attracted £350 million of private investment, in addition to the £100 million of UKRPIF funding.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge funding will be used to support the construction of a new £22 million Chemistry of Health building, expected to be completed by March 2017, which will provide world-class facilities for chemistry-based fundamental research in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

̽��ֱ��new building will promote the translation of fundamental research into clinical and commercial applications by providing the infrastructure required for new academic-industrial partnerships, which will have both immediate and long-term benefits for human health and the UK economy.

“As a ̽��ֱ�� and a Department we have a huge responsibility to make sure that our research gets translated into real benefits for society,” said Professor Daan Frenkel, Head of the ̽��ֱ��’s Department of Chemistry. “This is particularly true in the area of health: the dramatic increase in age and lifestyle related diseases calls not just for ground-breaking chemical discoveries, but for private-public partnerships that will translate those discoveries into treatments. ̽��ֱ��Chemistry of Health building will be the embodiment of this philosophy. It will be a game changer.”

̽��ֱ��building will house the Centre for Protein Misfolding Diseases, the Chemistry of Health Incubator, and the Molecular Production and Characterisation Centre.

̽��ֱ��new building will enable the Centre for Protein Misfolding Diseases - directed by Professor Christopher Dobson, Professor Michele Vendruscolo and Dr Tuomas Knowles - to effect a step change in basic and translational research on molecular approaches to combat modern pandemics such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and type II diabetes.

̽��ֱ��Chemistry of Health Incubator will be at the core of this vision, where research scientists from industrial partners and start-up companies will occupy laboratory and desk space alongside researchers from Cambridge and collaborating institutions.

̽��ֱ��Molecular Production and Characterisation Centre will provide support and access to state-of-the-art instrumentation for in-house and UK-wide academic and industrial users.

“There have been really major breakthroughs within the Chemistry Department here in Cambridge in the context of human health, and particularly in understanding the fundamental origins of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, which are becoming frighteningly common in the modern world,” said Dobson. “These breakthroughs have come from the collaborative activities of a number of research groups working together in Cambridge, and with other partners, to understand the underlying nature of these conditions. ̽��ֱ��Chemistry of Health building will enable us to make a giant step forward in translating this work into future treatments to combat these rapidly proliferating and truly devastating conditions.”

For projects to be eligible for a UKRPIF award universities are required to secure at least double the amount of government investment from businesses or charities: these seven successful projects have between them secured more than three times the amount of public funding in investment from non-government sources.

To date, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), which manages the UKRPIF programme, has allocated over £500 million to 34 projects running between 2014-17, attracting £1.3 billion of investment from business and charities. A further £400 million of funding was announced for UKRPIF in last week’s budget for the period to 2021.

“ ̽��ֱ��UK Research Partnership Investment Fund has enabled universities to develop world-leading facilities and opportunities to deliver exceptional research, as well as attracting in more than £1.3 billion of private investment,” said Professor Madeleine Atkins, Chief Executive of HEFCE. “I am delighted that we are able to support these seven projects, and the budget announcement of additional funding for UKRPIF is excellent news. UK universities tackle major national and global challenges, and make a significant contribution to economic growth. ̽��ֱ��funding offers a further opportunity to enhance the nation’s research infrastructure and develop partnership work.”

New funding will support fundamental research into the molecular processes underlying human disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, and enable new ways to combat them.

As a ̽��ֱ�� and a Department we have a huge responsibility to make sure that our research gets translated into real benefits for society

Daan Frenkel

ZEISS Microscopy

Brain showing hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (cropped)

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