Collaborating with international, leading academic cancer research centres
Through our subsidiary Lyramid, we actively foster direct collaborations with leading international research institutes such as the Biozentrum/LMU in Munich to study inflammatory processes and heart failure, UTSW-Dallas for cancer, Complutense University, Madrid (Glioma), Salghrenksa Academy, Gothenburg (multiple sclerosis), University of Colorado (cardiology), Ulm University (bone), INSERM Paris (angiogenesis), and Tokyo MD Uni (cancer).
In addition to these Lyramid-based collaborative projects, since 2010 Cellmid, and subsequently Lyramid, has sponsored and coordinated the biennial Midkine Symposia to accelerate the progress of Midkine research, with the potential for collaborations that arise from regular face-to-face meetings between scientists.
In 2018 attendees represented 30 research institutes/universities including Cambridge, Nagoya, CNIO-Madrid, UTSW Dallas, Stanford, Michigan, Georgetown – Washington, Singapore, Shanghai, Arizona SU, and Helsinski. Lyramid has an ongoing relationship with this network of international researchers providing opportunities to establish additional productive collaborations. Recent studies on Midkine by these research groups have been published in top tier journals including Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Communications, Science Reports, J Experimental Medicine, and FASEB Journal. Lyramid also collaborates with several biotech/pharma companies to establish partnerships that may lead to clinical deployment of Midkine-based therapies, including diagnostic company RANDOX UK for clinical studies in cancer patients and other disease settings.
Presently Lyramid is focused on its oligonucleotide drug development led by Professor Robertson (Chief Scientific Officer), who has designed Midkine antisense oligonucleotides. The screening of these initial drug candidates has commenced using human tumour cell lines to assess efficacy in reducing the levels of biologically active Midkine. Lead oligonucleotides are intended to be selected and optimized prior to in vivo studies in tumour-bearing animals and preclinical models of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. These preclinical animal studies are intended to be carried out by the network of academic and biotech partners that Lyramid has already established and are expected to continue to expand on a needs basis as the program progresses.