Strategic Alliance Will Promote Genetics Discovery Research

A major representative of the biotech industry will be collaborating with one of the United States' premiere research institutions in a 30 million USD strategic alliance to conduct genetics discovery research on the underlying causes of disease and to identify new treatment approaches.

The collaboration will enable the biotechnology company Biogen Idec (Cambridge, MA, USA) and Columbia University (New York, NY, USA) to investigate the genomes of patients showing unusual treatment responses or unique disease presentations and to explore the connections among genes, pathways, and disease processes. The ultimate goal will be to provide multiple qualified targets for new therapeutic approaches, increasing the potential for the development of new treatments.

To this end a sequencing and analysis facility and shared postdoctoral program will be established at Columbia University to support collaborative genetics studies. The new facility will have broad genetic research capabilities and the capacity to launch and complete whole-genome sequencing projects rapidly. It will allow for rapid population-scale DNA sequencing across a broad range of disease areas, focusing on diseases with significant unmet clinical need such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

"Our understanding of human genetics is rapidly expanding, and there is growing recognition that the elucidation of the genetic causes of disease will have a transformative effect on both patient care and drug development in many different diseases," said Dr. David Goldstein, founding director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine at Columbia University. "This collaboration marries the exceptional drug development expertise of Biogen with cutting-edge genomics expertise at Columbia University Medical Center. It will not only focus on target identification and validation at the early stages of drug development, but also facilitate genetically informed evaluation of treatments."

"Human genetic technologies and analytics have advanced to the point where they are becoming central to the discovery and development of new medicines," said Dr. Tim Harris, senior vice president, technology and translational sciences at Biogen Idec. "We are committed to working with leading institutions such as Columbia to advance basic genetic research and, by combining our unique strengths, accelerating the discovery of potential new treatments."

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Biogen Idec
Columbia University