NEW YORK – Genomenon said Tuesday that it is partnering with three disease research foundations in hopes of accelerating development of new "precision" drugs to treat rare neurodevelopmental diseases.
The three organizations are COMBINEDBrain, the SynGAP Research Fund, and SLC-6A1 Connect, not-for-profit organizations in search of effective treatments for diseases that currently have none.
Genomenon, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based bioinformatics company, will work with the organizations and their pharmaceutical partners to provide artificial intelligence-driven analysis of genomic data in support of clinical trials and diagnostic testing. "By putting critical information at the fingertips of researchers and clinicians seeking diagnoses for their patients, this new venture represents a shared mission to ensure that no patient goes undiagnosed or untreated," CEO Mike Klein said in a statement.
COMBINEDBrain — short for Consortium for Outcome Measures and Biomarkers for Neurodevelopmental Disorders — was founded in 2019 to pool resources in the pursuit of treatments for severe, rare neurodevelopmental diseases. The consortium now includes 32 like-minded foundations, including the SynGAP Research Fund and SLC-6A1 Connect.
The latter two organizations were started by parents whose children were diagnosed with rare diseases associated with mutations in the SYNGAP1 and SLC6A1 genes, respectively.
"Kids with SYNGAP1 are disabled for life and require huge investments and sacrifices from their families," said SynGAP Research Fund Founder Mike Graglia. "Collaborations to improve the quality of life for patients and their families are essential to our fight for a cure."