Global Roundup: Astellas, Mogrify Battle Sensorineural Hearing Loss & More
06 Jul 2022
Gene TherapyCollaborateAntibodyOrphan DrugFinancial Statement
The United Kingdom's Mogrify Limited and Japan's Astellas Pharma have forged a collaboration surrounding in vivo regenerative medicine approaches to address sensorineural hearing loss.
The companies will harness Mogrify's proprietary direct cellular reprogramming platform to identify novel combinations of transcription factors involved in cell differentiation to generate new cochlear hair cells. Astellas Gene Therapies, a division of Astellas, will cover the research cost of the work and contribute its expertise in adeno-associated virus (AAV) based genetic medicine and translational capabilities to complete experiments in pre-clinical models. Mogrify will then screen and validate the process to characterize potential therapeutic factors using its platform.
"Mogrify's human regulatory network-centric approach is well placed to identify superior factor combinations, therefore increasing the efficiency of direct conversion toward the target cell type in the ear. Combined with Astellas' capabilities for gene therapy and research of sensorineural, this provides a clear path for the development of a novel in vivo reprogramming therapy for sensorineural hearing loss," Dr. Louise Modis, chief scientific officer of Mogrify, said in a statement.
It is estimated that 1.57 billion people globally suffer from hearing loss. Of those, data suggests that over 10% have severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss in at least one ear. This loss of hearing represents a large unmet need, the companies said.
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