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Probiodrug Receives Research Grant of EUR 1.9 million

25 Jun 2008 - Probiodrug AG announced that the company has received a grant of EUR 1.9 million from the public research funding program "KMU innovativ: Biotechnology-BioChance", a funding program of the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to support innovative biotech SME's.
 
The grant is split over a period of three years as a non-repayable fund and will be used by Probiodrug for the characterization and pharmacological evaluation of glutaminyl cyclase inhibitors as a novel treatment strategy for Alzheimer's disease (AD). This innovative therapeutic approach is based on Probiodrug`s discovery that the enzyme glutaminyl cyclase (QC) is involved in the seeding of AD-typical amyloid A found in the brain of AD patients explaining its neurotoxic activity in the brain of patients with AD.
 
"We are very pleased about being awarded this substantial grant," said Prof Dr Hans-Ulrich Demuth, CSO of Probiodrug. "It will help us to advance our preclinical development activities directed at the selection of a candidate for clinical evaluation in this important disease area. This will involve collaborative work conducted with academic partners such as the group led by Prof Dr T. A. Bayer, at the University of Göttingen and the group of PD Dr S. Rossner, at the Paul-Flechsig-Institute for Brain Research at the University of Leipzig. Parts of the lead discovery process will be conducted by our long-term partner Origenis GmbH in Martinsried/Munich."