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| PamGene Participates in 3 Major Science Consortia | | | PamGene Participates in 3 Major Science Consortia
More than €2 million received in government grants
PamGene has recently secured more funds for collaborative research; this time a €2million grant from SenterNovem, a Dutch government agency. The company has also announced it is participating as a consortium member in a recently approved project under the European Union 6th Framework Programme on the investigation of mitochondrial diseases. The third consortium involves a collaboration with the Netherlands Proteomics Centre to further develop the area of proteomics research.
The SenterNovem funding is for the development of bioinformatics and systems biology on PamGene's PamChip® Array platform and will be carried out in conjunction with University of Rotterdam and the Wilhelmina Kinderziekenhuis, Utrecht, The Netherlands and the VTT Technical Research Centre, Turku, Finland. This collaboration will lead to vital progress being made in the understanding of biological pathways, thereby providing more insight into how diseases, such as cancer, originate.
Mitochondrial diseases affect ~1 in 10,000 of the general population world-wide, but mitochondrial defects are involved in cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer and heart disease as well. The joint clinical and laboratory expertise from the major European centres will address the important clinical issue of rapid and accurate molecular diagnosis for mitochondrial disease. This will have direct benefits on the management of patients and it will pave the way for future treatment trials. The project will be carried out together with the University of Maastricht and Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands, INSERM, Paris, France, the National Institute of Neurology, Milan, Italy and the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England.
The Netherlands Proteomics Centre (NPC) exists to improve the technological tools used in proteomics research and to contribute to a better understanding of disease processes. The NPC boasts a large number of influential research groups from Dutch universities, academic hospitals, biotechnology companies and service providers amongst its participants. PamGene's collaboration with the NPC will bring proteomics research to a new level: functional proteomics. This will enable vital information to be gleaned on post-translational modifications and protein activities.
PamGene's Chief Executive Officer, Tim Kievits, remarked, "We're naturally very pleased to announce these latest developments. The funding and the new collaborations support PamGene and our partners firm belief that our technology has a significant role to play in a broad range of areas, specifically those focusing on fighting disease through development of more detailed knowledge of relevant biopathways." | |
