Cytox Signs Research Agreement with AIBL and Partner Organisations

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PRESS RELEASE:

Collaboration will contribute to further refinement of diagnostic SNPs for Alzheimer’s disease

OXFORD, England–(BUSINESS WIRE)–June 1, 2015–

Cytox Ltd, an innovative developer of assays for risk assessment and prediction of dementia, has entered into a collaborative research arrangement with leading Australian neurodegenerative disease research organisations – the Cooperative Research Centre for Mental Health (CRCMH) and Edith Cowan University (ECU), partner organisations to the Australian Imaging, Biomarker & Lifestyle Flagship Study of Ageing (AIBL). The CRCMH undertakes research in respect of the early identification and treatment of neurodegenerative disease, psychoses and mood disorders. ECU leads the genetics programme within AIBL, a study to discover which biomarkers, cognitive characteristics and lifestyle factors determine subsequent development of symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease. This agreement follows on from the recent funding award by Innovate UK to Cytox, Birmingham University and UCL.

Dr. Richard Pither, CEO of Cytox commented, “AIBL is well established as one of the largest, well-characterised, longitudinal cohorts of healthy ageing and cognitive decline in the world. We have already identified candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) based on next generation sequencing (NGS) studies. This agreement will enable us to further refine SNP selection via NGS sequencing on highly characterised patient populations, through access to selected subjects from the AIBL cohort. CRCMH has previously funded research by ECU on whole exome sequencing of AIBL subjects and analysis of mTOR pathway genotypes and their relationship to Alzheimer’s disease clinical, cognitive and amyloid imaging profiles. This partnership is, therefore, the perfect fit with our aim of developing a genetic variation panel for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) risk stratification. We are confident that the collaboration will contribute significantly to improving the selection of SNPs that are diagnostic and prognostic for Alzheimer’s disease.”

“CRCMH’s main research focus is on developing biomarkers which can assist in diagnosing these debilitating neurodegenerative diseases before the onset of mental decline,” added Professor Ian Cooke, CEO, CRCMH, “Having already targeted mTOR pathway genotypes with our research partners, ECU and AIBL, we are delighted to be working with Cytox, who have recently been awarded Innovate UK funding for their research in this area, and whose approach closely aligns with ours. We look forward to this partnership providing further meaningful diagnostic and prognostic data.”

http://www.mentalhealthcrc.com

http://www.ecu.edu.au/research/overview

http://aibl.csiro.au