Grant awarded
Galapagos NV, of Mechelen, Belgium, has won an EU grant of €500,000 for its contribution to Proligen, a research consortium focused on enhancing regeneration of injured kidneys.
The Proligen consortium is combining findings from genomics, proteomics, and functional genomics to discover new drug targets. Under the terms of the agreement, Galapagos’ services division, BioFocus, will use its SilenceSelect and FLeXSelect adenoviral libraries and cellular assay expertise to identify targets that can serve as starting points for the development of novel treatment methods for kidney injury.
The resulting gene function information will provide the consortium with tools to deliver new biologicals and cell-based therapies for kidney regeneration.
Other members of the Proligen consortium include the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas - Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas de Barcelona and the Fundació Privada Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge in Spain; the Klinikum der Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität, Frankfurt, in Germany; Genedata AG in Switzerland; ProtEra srl. in Italy; and Leiden University in the Netherlands.
The aim of the project is to define and identify a set of proteins associated with functional recovery from renal injury. These will then be used build high throughput test systems to follow the basic biological process involved in regeneration and to identify novel drug targets. The programme has €2.5 million funding over three years from Framework Programme 6.
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