The collaboration is aimed at O-GIcNAcase, a target for Alzheimer’s, that modulates the solubility of the protein in these aggregates but that has been difficult to target with conventional small-molecule libraries.
Aquapharm will fund research in Dundee University Biological Chemistry professor Daan van Aalten’s labs and will provide access to extracts from its culture collection of marine micro-organisms to screen and ‘mine’ for individual active compounds.
Dundee will provide knowledge transfer of the O-GlcNAcase high-throughput screens to Aquapharm to allow the company to conduct screening work to run alongside the academic programme.
Aquapharm founder and CTO Andrew Mearns Spragg said that the collaboration not only strengthens the core biology of the company, but also brings together leading experts in the fields of protein biochemistry, drug discovery and marine natural products.