Foundation attends Target to Patient conference as charity partner

At the end of April, we were invited as the charity partner for the Target to Patient conference on the Wellcome Genome Campus, near Cambridge. Research Programme Managers Drs Anna Motyl and Giacomo Bertuzzi used this opportunity to introduce the Foundation and the Discovery Network, our new research programme, while learning from leaders in therapeutic target discovery, drug development, and science policy.

We received a warm welcome at the conference and many positive interactions after the presentation of the Discovery Network, supporting the new approach we’re taking. The resulting discussions prompted possibilities of new partnerships, with both academic research groups and industry experts. While the conference covered all areas of human health, MND was mentioned several times during the talks, highlighting the current emphasis on the disease and momentum to develop effective treatments.

The Discovery Network will be uniquely situated in the MND research landscape in the UK, bringing together multidisciplinary teams that will focus on fundamental research to identify potential new therapeutic targets and understand how the disease first develops and progresses. By engaging with many different experts before the launch of this ambitious research network, we are ensuring that we will be able to support our researchers to perform their work at the highest level, applying industry standards to academic research. We are working to set up an efficient pipeline to rapidly take promising findings through to preclinical development, with input from pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

Target to Patient was the ideal starting point for us to incorporate key elements of therapeutic target identification and drug discovery processes into the building blocks of the Discovery Network. We made many valuable connections during the conference and are excited to see which strategic partnerships may be formed as a result. We’d like to thank the organisers for giving us the opportunity to attend and interact with their participants.