CHDI
CHDI and FMI Collaboration
New York, CHDI Foundation, Inc. has entered into collaboration with the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) to develop an assay to quantify huntingtin, the protein that causes Huntington’s disease (HD). FMI and CHDI will collaborate to develop a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) immunoassay that measures the distance-dependent interaction between two antibodies; huntingtin proteins with larger polyglutamine repeat expansions (mutant) will be characterized differently from those with smaller expansions (normal huntingtin).
“The development of an assay that measures the amount of huntingtin in animal models and clinical samples and that can distinguish between the normal and mutant forms will be a critical step forward for the whole field of Huntington’s disease research,” said Douglas Macdonald, Director, Drug Discovery at CHDI. “We’ve known for a long time that mutant huntingtin causes HD but our drug development efforts have been hampered by our inability to define fundamental aspects of the biology of this key protein. We’re particularly delighted that the assay coming out of this collaboration will be made available to the HD research community for research and clinical development purposes. It’s very exciting to have the FMI, with all the expertise and resources they will bring, as a collaborator in this venture.”
About CHDI Foundation, Inc.
CHDI Foundation, Inc. is a privately-funded, not-for-profit, biomedical research organization exclusively dedicated to rapidly discovering and developing therapies that slow the progression of Huntington’s disease. As a collaborative enabler, CHDI seeks to bring the right partners together to identify and address critical scientific issues and move drug candidates to clinical evaluation as quickly as possible. Our scientists work closely with a network of more than 600 researchers in academic and industrial laboratories around the world in the pursuit of these novel therapies, providing project management to ensure that our common goals remain in focus. More information about CHDI can be found at www.chdifoundation.org.
More information is available from:
Simon Noble, PhD
Director, Scientific Communications
CHDI Management/CHDI Foundation
+1 212 660 8112