10 April, 2018

CHDI Foundation Funding (Basic Research)

THE WORLD'S LARGEST FOUNDATION IN THE SEARCH FOR A CURE FOR NEURODEGENERATIVE HUNTINGTON'S DISEASE, CHDI, HAS SHOWN CONTINUED TRUST IN CREATIO FOR THE PAST FEW YEARS.

CHDI Foundation is a privately-funded, not-for-profit biomedical research organization devoted to a single disease – Huntington’s disease. Its mission is to develop drugs that will slow the progression of Huntington’s disease and provide meaningful clinical benefit to patients as quickly as possible. To achieve this CHDI manages a diverse portfolio of research projects through a novel virtual model that encourages scientific collaboration to more directly connect academic research, drug discovery and clinical development. This helps bridge the translational gap that often exists between academic and industrial research pursuits, and which adds costly delays to therapeutic development. CHDI activities extend from exploratory biology to the identification and validation of therapeutic targets, and from drug discovery and development to clinical studies and trials.

Since 2012, CHDI has placed its continuous trust in the projects presented and developed by Creatio. These projects have ranged from finding basic neuronal function by differentiating human pluripotent stem cells to cell transplantation as future therapy. These investigations have led to the opening of a whole new field of research in Huntington’s disease to explore the role of neurodevelopment in the late onset of symptoms.

In this line of research, in 2018, CHDI financed Creatio’s latest project. This project is being studied at the level of human neurodevelopment, using the neuronal differentiation technique of human pluripotent stem cells and its gene characterization at the level of RNAseq and single cell sequencing (Singel cell SMARTseq2). This project is one of the largest projects signed between CHDI and an academic center. The project, managed through the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation (FBG), is carried out in different phases with a total duration of three years. In the first place, it will be studied how the presence of the mutation that causes Huntington’s disease affects human development, and secondly, if this alteration takes place in a specific neuronal subpopulation. The results will also allow modeling using artificial intelligence techniques the development of neurons in the striatum nucleus, and how this process is altered in Huntington’s disease.

The continued trust of the CHDI Foundation in the projects developed by Creatio’s scientists shows the consistency of the center’s results and the contribution towards the development of a therapy for Huntington’s disease. This disease is a progressive neurological disorder characterized by dysfunction and death of neurons in specific brain regions. Neurodegeneration occurs most prominently in the striatum, although loss of neurons in the cerebral cortex has also been reported. As a result, patients with Huntington’s disease experience motor, cognitive, and emotional disturbances, leading to progressive dementia and death 15-20 years after the onset of clinical symptoms.

Creatio focuses its efforts on finding therapies for neurodegenerative diseases through national and European public projects, and through collaboration with private foundations such as CHDI. Our goal is to help find a therapy for Huntington’s disease as soon as possible.