Oryzon, first Spanish biotech company to receive 300,000 dollars from Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation

BY BIOCAT

Oryzon is the first Spanish biotechnology company to receive a grant from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), for 300,000 dollars, to fund their research into new therapies to combat Alzheimer’s.

Oryzon’s focus centers on inhibiting a recently discovered protein, called LSD1. This protein plays an important role in regulating the expression of key genes that neurons need to stay active. LSD1 switches the expression of these genes off and on in response to age and environmental conditions. It also regulates the expression of genes involved in the progression of Alzheimer’s and other neurological disorders, like Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases.

This grant from the ADDF will give the company extra resources to carry out proof-of-concept trials on LSD inhibitors in several mouse models with Alzheimer’s and help make Oryzon’s molecules clinical candidates.

The ADDF is the only charitable organization that aims to speed up the discovery and development of drugs to prevent, treat and cure Alzheimer’s, as well as associated dementias and cognitive ageing. Since 1998, they have granted more than 40 million dollars to some 300 drug-discovery programs in educational centers and biotechnology companies from 15 countries around the world.

"We are proud to support Oryzon's novel LSD1 program, which has the potential to impact multiple disease targets in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders", said Howard Fillit, executive director of the American association.

CEO of the Catalan biotechnology company, Carlos Buesa, said, “We are excited by the prospect of working more closely with the Alzheimer's community. This grant will accelerate the optimization of our advanced pharmaceutical leads for AD and validates Oryzon's innovative approaches engendered in a field where there is a desperate medical need".