FROM: Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA
January 9, 2005
SECTION: EXPANDED REPORTING; Pg. 94
HEADLINE: PARKINSON DISEASE;
Biotech firm gets NIH grant to study environmental causes of Parkinson
disease
RxGen, Inc., a private biotechnology company, announced that the
National
Institutes of Health (NIH) has funded phase 1 of the company's Fast Track
SBIR
grant for $1.1 million to uncover genomic markers of Parkinson disease.
RxGen is using genomics and bioinformatics technologies and knowledge
of
primate models of Parkinson disease to profile in vivo brain RNA
expression
patterns following exposure to compounds known to cause the neuronal
injury and
dopamine depletion associated with Parkinson disease.
RxGen's plans to profile toxins such as rotenone,
tetrahydroisoquinolone,
dithiocarbamate, and Paraquat, which have been implicated as possible
environmental causes of Parkinson disease. This grant will enable RxGen
to
examine critical pathways of injury and neuroprotection specific to
dopaminergic
neurons, which may set the stage for developing therapeutic
interventions.
The NIH SBIR funding will help RxGen advance its internal research
and
development programs associated with predictive toxicology and central
nervous
system drug discovery. RxGen's predictive toxicology technology program,
PrimaTox, was recently funded by the NIH through a separate Fast Track
SBIR
award of $1.4 million.
RxGen has access to a primate facility with 27 years of experience in
research pertaining to Parkinson disease and other neurodegenerative
conditions
and related therapeutic strategies.
RxGen, Inc. is focused on the development of therapeutics for
neurodegeneration, memory loss, obesity and other central nervous system
disorders using animal models of human disease and leading genomics and
bioinformatics.
This article was prepared by Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA
editors from
staff and other reports. Copyright 2005, Medical Letter on the CDC &
FDA via
NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net.
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