Through the CoE program, Horizon will support Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the University of Liverpool in their application of Horizon’s propriety gene engineering technology, GENESIS™, to generate human isogenic cell lines incorporating genes involved in the development of specific diseases, with a focus on cancer.
The Dana-Farber CoE will focus on epigenetic mechanisms involved in the differentiation of normal stem cells and development of normal tissues, and how abnormalities in this process lead to initiation and progression of tumors. They will also develop isogenic cellular models to understand the roles of specific epigenetic genes and their role in breast cancer.
The University of Liverpool is interested the Ras family of proteins (N-, H- and K-Ras) which are involved in many key cellular processes, and how they produce different biological outputs despite their high degree of identity,. The University will produce isogenic cellular models that express different forms of these Ras proteins from their endogenous loci.
The Babraham Institute will use Horizon’s rAAV gene editing technology to understand the different PI3K isoforms and other components of the PI3K signaling networks. PI3K enzymes are critical regulators involved in many cellular responses.
“We are delighted these three new world class institutes have joined our Centers of Excellence program,” said Dr Rob Howes, Principal Scientist, Horizon. “Horizon is hoping to continue expanding the CoE network through 2012, and we look forward to working with an increasing number of excellent scientific groups.”
Horizon has also announced that it has launched a conference travel bursary awards scheme to support PhD students and early-stage researchers working with X-MAN cell lines. Once per quarter, scientists will be invited to submit an abstract of work they intend to present at an upcoming conference. Horizon will select up to five of these entries per quarter, to which they will award bursaries of £250 for national conference attendance, and £500 for international conference attendance. Scientists successful in their application are asked to write a one page report following the conference, which along with their poster will be posted to Horizon’s rAAVers.org website.
Horizon’s CoE program encompasses academic and not-for-profit research groups or laboratories to which Horizon commits resources to provide training and open access to its proprietary rAAV-mediated human gene-editing platform, GENESIS™. Horizon also recently launched an online support site, www.rAAVers.org, for scientists working with rAAV-mediated genome editing.
The new human isogenic cell lines generated by the CoE’s will be exclusively licensed to Horizon in return for future product royalties. Horizon will also have an exclusive option to license new intellectual property developed. This forms part of Horizon’s strategy to generate at least 2500 new X-MANTM (gene X- Mutant And Normal) models of cancer, neurodegenerative, and cardiovascular disease. These models support drug discovery researchers in their efforts to understand how complex genetic diseases manifest themselves in real patients, and help rationalize many aspects of drug development, reducing the cost of bringing to market new personalized therapies.
The centers are part of the GENESIS Gene Editing Consortium, which includes rAAV GENESIS pioneers the University of Washington, the University of Torino, Johns Hopkins University, the Translational Genomics Institute (TGen), the University of Minnesota, the University of Maryland, Case Western Reserve University and the University of Pittsburgh.
About Horizon Discovery http://www.horizondiscovery.com/
Horizon Discovery Limited (Horizon) is a leading provider of research tools to support translational genomics research and the development of personalized medicines. The Company’s proprietary rAAV gene-editing technology, GENESIS™, is industry leading. Using GENESIS, Horizon is able to alter any endogenous gene sequence of a human or mammalian cell-line quickly, reliably and without introducing unwanted and confounding genotypes and/or phenotypes.
Horizon has applied GENESIS to create over 400 X-MAN™ cell lines, the world’s first source of genetically-defined and patient-relevant human cell lines, accurately modeling the disease-causing mutations found in cancer patients. These ‘patients-in-a-test-tube’ are being used by academic and industry leaders to identify the effect of individual or compound genetic mutations on drug activity, patient responsiveness, and resistance, leading to the successful prediction of which patient sub-groups will respond to currently-available and future drug treatments. This enables the design of shorter, more focused, and less expensive clinical trials, ultimately providing the tools to identify the ‘right drugs’ for the ‘right patients’ based upon the unique genetic mutations that define their disease.
In addition to the X-MAN cell lines, Horizon provides GENESIS and X-MAN™ derived products and services, with industrial application in: bio-pharmaceutical process optimization; clinical diagnostic development; drug discovery & development; and the provision of reference standards for genomic-based clinical research platforms.
GENESIS and X-MAN are registered trademarks of Horizon Discovery Limited.
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Contacts:
At Horizon:
Dr Rob Howes
Principal Scientist
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 655 584
Email: r.howes@horizondiscovery.com
Media enquiries:
Katie Odgaard
Zyme Communications
Tel: +44 (0)7787 502 947
Email: katie.odgaard@zymecommunications.com
Twitter: zymecomms
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Horizon Discovery establishes three new Centres of Excellence
25 June 2012
Horizon Discovery, a leading provider of research tools to support the development of personalised medicines, today announced it has established three new Centres of Excellence (CoE) for rAAV gene editing, at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in Boston, MA, the University of Liverpool, UK and the Babraham Institute, in Cambridge, UK.