The funding is intended to accelerate the development of therapeutics that arise from discoveries made in academic labs sponsored by RCF.
This collaboration will take discoveries made by principal investigators within the Tau Consortium through the so-called “valley of death” of drug discovery by applying an integrated drug discovery approach to advance these discoveries towards the clinic. This partnership will be a full collaboration between select Tau Consortium principal investigators, ADDI and RCF. The deep knowledge in basic discovery biology and tauopathy biological mechanisms of Tau Consortium academic principal investigators will be complemented with the drug discovery expertise at the ADDI. The ADDI brings best practice target validation, assay development and execution, computational chemistry, and ADME-supported medicinal chemistry. This partnership aims to bring these programs to the point where further partnerships can be established to enable clinical development and commercialization.
“This collaborative partnership is a significant step forward in our plans to bring potential treatments closer to the clinic for patients suffering from tauopathies,” said Leticia Toledo-Sherman, PhD., Senior Director of Drug Discovery for the Tau Consortium at the Rainwater Charitable Foundation. “The ADDI team combines deep understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and primary tauopathies research with critical drug discovery expertise in neurodegenerative diseases. This combination and their track record of bringing academic programs towards the clinic will be instrumental for the success of our therapeutic development efforts.”
“The identification of good quality validated drug discovery targets is a critical step in the drug discovery process,” said Dr John Skidmore, Chief Scientific Officer from the ADDI (pictured). “The RCF’s Tau Consortium program brings together the very best tauopathy researchers and is driving forward the discovery of these targets. This alliance, combining ADDI’s drug discovery expertise and select Tau Consortium principal investigators under the RCF’s strategic leadership, presents an exciting new opportunity to progress these new targets towards the clinic, developing new and much-needed treatments that can benefit patients.”
About the Rainwater Charitable Foundation and the Tau Consortium
The Rainwater Charitable Foundation (RCF) was created in the early 1990s by renowned private equity investor and philanthropist Richard E. Rainwater. RCF supports a range of programs in K-12 education, medical research, and other worthy causes. In order to deliver on its mission to accelerate the development of new diagnostics and treatments for tau-related neurodegenerative disorders, the Rainwater Charitable Foundation Medical Research team manages the Tau Consortium and the Rainwater Prize Program. With over $100 million invested to date, the Rainwater Foundation has helped to advance eight treatments into human trials. For more information, please visit http://rainwatercharitablefoundation.org/, www.rainwaterprize.org, and https://tauconsortium.org/.
About ALBORADA Drug Discovery Institute
The ALBORADA Drug Discovery Institute (ADDI) is a not-for-profit group based at the University of Cambridge. The ADDI was founded in 2014 through a £10M grant from Alzheimer’s Research UK which was renewed in 2020. The ALBORADA Drug Discovery Institute is part of a Drug Discovery Alliance, funded by the charity ARUK. The ADDI comprises scientific experts in screening, cell and molecular neurobiology, in vivo biology, and medicinal chemistry in world-class facilities within the University’s Clinical School. ADDI’s mission is to take new targets identified by academic collaborators and, through collaboration, deliver chemical lead series and proof of concept studies in animals and to work towards delivery of development candidates.
The ALBORADA Trust gave the largest donation ever received by ARUK. The Trust has funded Alzheimer’s research for many years.