Combined capabilities will correlate effects of compounds on neurogenesis with other neurochemical and molecular signals.
PsychoGenics and KineMed have established an alliance that will add the latter’s specialized neurogenesis services to PsychoGenics’ existing in vivo testing capabilities. PsychoGenics says KineMed’s techniques will complement and broaden its own in vivo and in vitro capabilities to speed the identification and analysis of CNS drug candidates.
KineMed has developed an analytical method for measuring neuronal cell proliferation, differentiation, and survival, which it claims eliminates the need for histological analysis. The firm has developed an approach based on the tracking of stable isotopes using mass spectroscopy to measure a wide range of biological processes including those by which the body transports and transforms cholesterol, neutral fats and sugars, the generation and breakdown of specific proteins, and rates of cell division.
The neurogenesis platform will be combined with PsychoGenics collection of animal models, to enable an integrated assessment of the role of neurogenesis in psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. “We are excited to enter into this alliance with KineMed, which will allow PsychoGenics to provide our clients and partners the ability to assess the effects of compounds on behavior and neurogenesis and correlate them with other neurochemical and molecular signals such as changes in transmitter and growth factor levels in the same animal,” comments David Lowe, Ph.D., PsychoGenics’ CSO.
PsychoGenics specializes in the provision of preclinical neurobiology and CNS drug discovery services, based on its high-throughput behavioral testing platforms that combine behavioral neurobiology with bioinformatics. The resulting platforms are being used to develop a pipeline of in-house and partnered drug candidates for diseases spanning ADHD, anxiety, cognitive impairment, depression, eating disorders, pain, and psychosis/schizophrenia.
