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Horizon, WUSTL establish Center of Excellence
10-17-2012
EDIT CONNECT
SHARING OPTIONS:
CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom—Horizon Discovery has announced
the establishment of a Center of Excellence for gene editing together with
Washington University in St. Louis and the BRIGHT Institute (Bridging Research
with Imaging, Genomics and High-Throughput).
The BRIGHT Institute, part of the
university's cancer efforts, is "dedicated to mechanism- and discovery-based
science and structured to enable rapid
translation of breakthroughs into
patient care through molecular imaging, function genomics and high-throughput
technologies." Representing one of the
premier genome sequencing facilities
worldwide, Washington University and the BRIGHT Institute will work alongside
Horizon to translate their genomic
data into disease model cell lines for the
advancement of cancer knowledge. The new cell lines will be exclusively
licensed to Horizon in return for
future product royalties.
"We are pleased to license to Horizon the human cell
lines we have developed
at Washington University," Jason Weber, Ph.D.,
associate professor of medicine in the Division of Oncology and researcher at
the BRIGHT Institute at
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis,
said in a press release. "With these cell lines, we will use Horizon's
GENESIS technology to
alter specific genes involved in the development and
progression of cancer. We can also test whether existing or investigational
drugs are effective
against these models of human cancer, an important early
step in the development of personalized medicine."
Horizon's Center of Excellence program spans a variety of
organizations, consisting of academic and not-for-profit research
groups or
laboratories to which Horizon makes available resources for training and open
access to GENESIS, its proprietary rAAV-mediated human gene-
editing platform.
The Center of Excellence at Washington University and the BRIGHT Institute will
make use of the GENESIS platform to develop isogenic
pairs (mutant and wild
type) of human cell lines that incorporate genes associated with the
development of certain diseases. These cell lines will then
be available as
accurate disease models to enable additional research. David Piwnica-Worms
M.D., Ph.D., Helen Piwnica-Worms, Ph.D., Greg Longmore,
M.D., Vijay Sharma,
Ph.D., Sheila Stewart, Ph.D. and Jason D. Weber, Ph.D. will serve as the
principal investigators for the project.
"We are delighted that a genetic research organization of
the caliber of Washington University and the BRIGHT
Institute has recognized
the potential of the GENESIS technology," Dr. Rob Howes, principal scientist at
Horizon Discovery, said in a statement. "We
are working with groups around the
world to develop an increasing number of cell lines accurately modeling human
disease, providing vital tools for
understanding, preventing and treating those
diseases, and towards more personalized therapies."
The agreement is in keeping with Horizon's goal of
generating at least 2,500 new X-MAN (gene X-Mutant And Normal) models within a
variety of
diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular, neurological and
autoimmune diseases. Horizon's X-MAN cell lines "model many of the common
genotypes
observed in human cancer, plus provide their perfectly matched normal
genetic backgrounds as a reference. X-MAN cell lines separate the cancer-gene
spectrum to aid the discovery of specifically targeted drugs that can be used
singularly or in combination."
The Centers of Excellence are part of the GENESIS Gene
Editing Consortium, which includes the National Cancer Institute, Cambridge
University, Yale University and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
SOURCE: Horizon press release Code: E10171201 Back |
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