KVCC’s High Throughput Screening Center takes on Alzheimer’s project

The Michigan High Throughput Screening Center on the Groves campus of Kalamazoo Valley Community College is turning its screening capabilities to screening compounds for Alzheimer’s treatment research.

The center has been chosen to work with Oligomerix, a New York-based biopharmaceutical company, which is exploring the connection between small aggregates of a protein called tau in the brain that it believes can directly interfere with memory when there are too many of them.

The company is proceeding with the study after receipt of a two-year Small Business Innovation Research Phase II grant for $1.6 million from the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health. Oligiomerix is looking for small molecules and antibodies to target the tau protein oligomers. Antibodies developed in this program against tau oligomers will be used for drug development.

The company says there is a large and growing need for drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease. There are at least 18 million cases of the disease worldwide and by 2025 this is expected to increase to 34 million. The United States spends $171 billion directly on caring for those with the disease for which there is no known cure.

The screening project undertaken this summer is expected to conclude by fall. The screening center will help Oligomerix’s scientists identify compounds that may have an impact on treating Alzheimer’s disease.

The Michigan High Throughput Screening Center provides high quality assay development, high throughput and high content screening and complete data analysis services to academic institutions, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and governmental laboratories.

Writer: Kathy Jennings
Source: Farrell Denby, Oligomerix, Inc.