On March 29, 2022 Vyant Bio, Inc. ("Vyant Bio", "Company") (Nasdaq: VYNT), an innovative biotechnology company reinventing drug discovery for complex neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders and OrganoTherapeutics, a developer of proprietary patient-specific organoids that recapitulate Parkinson’s Disease (PD) pathology, reported they have entered into a collaboration agreement to work toward accelerating the discovery of drugs for the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease (Press release, Vyant Bio, MAR 29, 2022, View Source [SID1234611213]).
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The collaboration brings together the respective teams’ expertise in drug discovery using human-derived cells, high-throughput biology and chemistry, and machine learning-based therapeutic design to identify potential PD drugs. Together, they will focus on the identification of drug candidates that rescue the PD phenotype through the development of disease-linked, clinically- translatable assays and biomarkers through multiple molecular, biochemical, and cellular methods. This approach will integrate and leverage OrganoTherapeutic’s complex, patient-derived, 3D-organoid disease models derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and Vyant Bio’s iPSC expertise and its AnalytiXTM machine learning technology.
OrganoTherapeutics has developed Parkinson’s Disease-specific midbrain organoids from multiple PD patients, providing the ability to more fully understand drug response based on genetic differences. Robert Fremeau, PhD, Vyant Bio’s Chief Scientific Officer, states "This collaboration with OrganoTherapeutics is another example of Vyant Bio’s commitment to accelerate the discovery and development of transformative therapies for patients living with severe CNS diseases. We are pleased to announce this collaboration with OrganoTherapeutics as they bring deep knowledge and innovative approaches to Parkinson’s Disease-based drug discovery. Together, we will expand our human-first platform in neurodevelopmental disorders such as Rett Syndrome and CDKL5 deficiency disorder into Parkinson’s Disease and ultimately other neurodegenerative disorders."
Jens Schwamborn, PhD, OrganoTherapeutics Co-Founder and CEO, confirms the anticipated benefits of the collaboration, "The specific genetic and environmental causes in most Parkinson’s patients are unknown. By focusing initially on disease-linked genetic mutations, we plan to identify common causes and potential therapeutic approaches that can be expanded into the much larger patient population. We look forward to integrating our approaches with Vyant Bio."
"We know that therapies for diseases that affect the CNS are difficult to discover: it requires meaningful innovation and exceptional scientific expertise to tackle," said Jay Roberts, CEO of Vyant Bio. "This collaboration is another in a series of strategic moves to focus our efforts while accelerating our position in drug discovery through the use of technologies that allow insight into human biology early in the discovery of CNS drugs."