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LDC and The Arctic University of Norway Collaborate to Discover New Medicines from the Arctic Ocean
UiT has gathered unique natural product libraries from all kinds of organisms living in the Arctic Sea, an unparalleled source for bioactives highly interesting for drug discovery. The extreme conditions in the Arctic Sea have sparked the evolution of diverse marine organisms containing numerous as yet unknown compounds.
"These bioactives clearly have great potential, and I am extremely pleased to exploit their value for the discovery of new therapies, together with the UiT", comments Dr Bert Klebl, CEO of the LDC. "Moreover, we are very much looking forward to becoming the UiT's partner for advancing their projects to the stage of validated pharmaceutical leads."
Under the terms of the agreement, the LDC may use the UiT library for screening purposes using targets sourced from its academic network. In addition, the partners intend to initiate joint drug discovery and development projects based on UiT targets. The partners will cooperate closely from the target selection stage through to the commercialization of resulting leads, with the UiT contributing project-specific expertise, its libraries and financial resources, and the LDC adding its comprehensive drug discovery and development know-how, together with its first-tier industry network. Potential revenues from commercialization will be shared between the partners. The collaboration is initially planned for a period of five years.
"We are very privileged to team up with such a prestigious and renowned R&D organization, which has an impressive track record." says Dean at the Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, UiT, Edel Elvevoll. "The collaboration with LDC significantly increases our ability to discover and develop drugs based on organisms from the Arctic environment."
About LDC
The Lead Discovery Center (LDC) was established in 2008 by the technology transfer organization Max Planck Innovation, as a novel approach to capitalize on the potential of excellent basic research for the discovery of new therapies for diseases with high medical need.
LDC takes on promising early-stage projects from academia and transforms them into innovative pharmaceutical leads that reach initial proof-of-concept in animals. In close collaboration with high profile partners from academia and industry, LDC is building a strong and growing portfolio of small molecule leads with exceptional medical and commercial potential. LDC sustains a preferred partnership with the Max Planck Society and has formed alliances with AstraZeneca, Bayer, Daiichi Sankyo and Merck Serono as well as leading academic drug discovery centers around the globe.Further information at: www.lead-discovery.de
About UiT
UiT is the northernmost university in the world comprising 12.000 students and 2800 staff. Quality education within all classical subject areas is offered. As an expert on the Arctic, much of the research is linked to the challenges and opportunities in the high north, and UiT is dedicated to create and disseminate cutting-edge knowledge on the Arctic regions, including marine biosdicovery research.
The successful 130 million NOK marine biodiscovery project, MabCent-SFI, was initiated in 2007. Along with project partners, including the Institute of Marine Research, a huge library/bank of marine arctic organisms and compounds has been established. The research has firmly placed UiT and Tromsø on the biodiscovery map and the project has generated several promising hits.
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