New partnership IMI-DNAVision to detect interferon resistance

The Institute for Medical Immunology and DNAVision are finalizing a partnership to develop a new test to detect interferon resistance in patients treated with interferon-beta for multiple sclerosis or with interferon-alpha for hepatitis C.

This test is based on the quantification in whole blood of mRNA encoding MxA, a type 1 interferon-inducible gene.

IMI : Identificaton of a novel molecular pathway for interleukin-12 synthesis

Interleukin-12 is a critical cytokine for the induction of protective immune responses against intracellular pathogens including persisting viruses and mycobacteria. The new vaccines against these microbes will require adjuvants inducing interleukin-12.

Stanislas Goriely, chargé de recherche FNRS and his coworkers recently demonstrated a critical role of the Myd88-independent TRIF-dependent pathway and the IRF-3 transcription factor for the induction of interleukin-12 donwstream of Toll-like receptor 4.

Toll-like receptor 4 is the receptor for monophosphoryl lipid A, a component of new vaccines in development against human papillomavirus and malaria.

These novel findings were published in the last issue of Blood, the official journal of the American Society of Hematology: Goriely S, Molle C, Nguyen M, Albarani V, Ouled Haddou N, Lin R, De Wit D, Flamand V, Willems F, Goldman M, Interferon regulatory factor 3 is involved in Toll like receptor (TLR)4- and TLR3-induced IL-12p35 gene activation, Blood, 107: 1078-1084, 2006.

DNAVision announces distribution agreement with Eurogentec for premature MicroRNA quantitation tools

Privately held companies DNAVision and Eurogentec announced that they have a distribution agreement under which Eurogentec will produce and market real-time PCR kits for the quantitation of more than 200 premature MicroRNAs. This quantitation tool has been developed by DNAVision and validated by Eurogentec.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of recently discovered RNAs that do not serve as templates for protein synthesis. They play a significant role in the regulation of the gene expression and some recent research data suggest that miRNAs regulate up to 30 percent of the expression of the human genes, including those linked with the development of cancers and infectious diseases. The quantitation of the precursors miRNA expression will help the understanding of the miRNA functions. Up-regulation of the miRNAs can help to identify gain-of-function phenotypes while down-regulation or inhibition studies can help to identify loss-of-function phenotypes. The combination of up- and down-regulation can be used to identify not only genes that are regulated by miRNAs but also cellular processes that are affected by specific miRNAs.

"We are delighted to offer this tool to quantitate premature MicroRNA and to point out the entrance of Eurogentec in this new market" said Daniel Marechal, Product and Business Development Manager of Eurogentec. Jean-Pol Detiffe, CEO of DNAVision was equally enthusiastic as he declared that "this agreement is probably the starting point for a synergetic partnership between our two companies and it will strengthen our MicroRNA quantification services for researchers all over the world".

PharmaDesign and Euroscreen form strategic alliance for GPCR Deorphznization

PharmaDesign Inc. (Tokyo, Japan) and Euroscreen S.A. announced a partnership to identify novel natural peptide ligands for orphan human G protein coupled receptors. PharmaDesign's proprietary peptide library offers novel opportunities for identification of novel natural ligands while Euroscreen's expertise in GPCR target discovery, functional screening of orphan receptors and pharmacological characterization will provide rapid screening of PharmaDesign's library and subsequent target validation. The partnership will provide novel Targets for partnering with shared income for the companies.

"We really wish this collaborative research will be so productive that it shows a novel way in drug discovery", said Dr. Toshio Furuya, President ans CEO of PharmaDesign Inc.

"This should provide our companies with a rapid opportunity to identify novel targets for original drug discovery programmes", said Dr. François Roman, the Head of Drug Development RD at Euroscreen.

BioVallée's Scientific Inventory

Since its establishment, BioVallée has collaborated to numerous research projects, covering a wide variety of scientific themes: breast cancer transcriptome profiling, identification of protein markers in ecotoxicology, female infertility characterization, analysis of protein complexes in Trypanosoma brucei (the causal agent of sleeping sickness), antibodies characterization,...

Some of these collaborations (with IBMM's labs particularly) led to publications in peer-reviewed international scientific journals. Thereby strengthening BioVallée's attractiveness as partner in research projects which are important to increase our know-how and technical skills.

The web site of BioVallée has recently been updated, the complete list of the publications resulting from these collaborations is now available on: http://www.biovallee.be/pages/EN/home_EN.aspx.

RNTech and DNAVision : co-marketing agreement

Privately held companies DNAVision and RNTECH announced today that they have signed a co-marketing agreement under which the companies will jointly offer an integrated package of high quality material biological bank, gene expression and genotyping technologies. Post-genome era discovery processes must be based upon the combination of two key components: high quality, severely selected biological material associated with diagnostic and clinical data from large scale patient cohorts and state of the art technology platforms including genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics platforms.

The RNTECH/DNAVision offer associates these key components, creating a unique opportunity for pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries to access discovery and development expertise at an unparalleled level in oncology for biomarker and drugable target discovery and development.

"We are delighted to combine our extensive biological material bank in oncology with DNAVision's gene expression and high-throughput genotyping platforms and offer, what we believe, a unique pharmacogenomic solution to pharmaceutical, clinical and academic partners interested by finding new biomarkers in oncology" said Michael Bia, CEO of RNTECH.

"We believe that the quality of RNTECH's biobank with complete clinical data and patient follow-up will provide in combination with our expertise a stronger, more clinically relevant offer for the oncology marketplace", said Jean-Pol Detiffe, CEO of DNAVision.