VASTox (AIM: VOX), a leading UK biotechnology company, announces today that it has received a grant from the Association Francaise Contre Les Myopathi
VASTox (AIM: VOX), a leading UK biotechnology company, announces today that it has received a grant from the Association Francaise Contre Les Myopathies (AFM), a leading European neuromuscular disease charity, to support to the company’s Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) drug discovery programme.
VASTox has developed an innovative in vivo screen, which models SMA in fruitfly larvae (Drosophila melanogaster). The Company is using this model to identify small molecules from its proprietary compound library. The financial support from AFM will allow VASTox to accelerate the preclinical screening and candidate identification phase of the programme and consequently aid the development of a novel therapy for SMA.
Spinal Muscular Atrophy affects 50,000 people in the developed world and is a genetic disease that causes loss of motor neurons in the spinal cord resulting in muscle atrophy. Patients either do not acquire or progressively lose the ability to move and death primarily occurs due to respiratory failure. In its severest form, known as type I, life expectancy is often less than two years.
AFM is one of the largest charities in the World that focuses on neuromuscular diseases; it has raised over €1.2 billion since 1987, the majority of which has been devoted to research and development. Founded in 1958 by a group of muscular dystrophy patients and families, AFM is focused mainly on developing cures for neuromuscular diseases and reducing the disabilities they cause.
Steven Lee, PhD, CEO of VASTox said: "VASTox is delighted to receive this grant from the AFM to help us accelerate our spinal muscular atrophy drug discovery efforts, particularly following the exciting progress we announced in the SMA programme last month. It is recognition that our unique, fruitfly-based approach to SMA research offers the potential for a novel treatment for this lethal disease. This is VASTox’s first charitable grant and we will work closely with the AFM and other like-minded charities to accelerate our drug discovery efforts wherever possible."
VASTox has developed an innovative in vivo screen, which models SMA in fruitfly larvae (Drosophila melanogaster). The Company is using this model to identify small molecules from its proprietary compound library. The financial support from AFM will allow VASTox to accelerate the preclinical screening and candidate identification phase of the programme and consequently aid the development of a novel therapy for SMA.
Spinal Muscular Atrophy affects 50,000 people in the developed world and is a genetic disease that causes loss of motor neurons in the spinal cord resulting in muscle atrophy. Patients either do not acquire or progressively lose the ability to move and death primarily occurs due to respiratory failure. In its severest form, known as type I, life expectancy is often less than two years.
AFM is one of the largest charities in the World that focuses on neuromuscular diseases; it has raised over €1.2 billion since 1987, the majority of which has been devoted to research and development. Founded in 1958 by a group of muscular dystrophy patients and families, AFM is focused mainly on developing cures for neuromuscular diseases and reducing the disabilities they cause.
Steven Lee, PhD, CEO of VASTox said: "VASTox is delighted to receive this grant from the AFM to help us accelerate our spinal muscular atrophy drug discovery efforts, particularly following the exciting progress we announced in the SMA programme last month. It is recognition that our unique, fruitfly-based approach to SMA research offers the potential for a novel treatment for this lethal disease. This is VASTox’s first charitable grant and we will work closely with the AFM and other like-minded charities to accelerate our drug discovery efforts wherever possible."
posted by Famous Quotations - VASTox (AIM: VOX), a leading UK biotechnology company, announces today that it has received a grant from the Association Francaise Contre Les Myopathi
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