GSK and the University of Oxford Join Forces to Research Treatment Potentials for Neurological Diseases

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the University of Oxford announced a five-year collaboration to establish an institute to improve the success and speed of research and development of new medicines, which will be based at the University of Oxford, according to a Dec. 2, 2021, press release. The institute, the Oxford-GSK Institute of Molecular and Computational Medicine, will build on insights from human genetics and will use advanced technologies, such as functional genomics and machine learning.

To understand detailed patterns of disease that vary among individuals, the institute intends to evaluate and integrate new approaches in genetics, proteomics, and digital pathology. The initial research will be focused on neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

In the past decade, there have been datasets of promising targets for medicine discovery. These datasets can be combined with functional genomics to provide a deep understanding of disease at a molecular level, according to the GSK press release. The institute will harness this understanding along with machine learning to learn new predictors of the disease and accelerate drug discovery.

“I am delighted to see that GSK and the University of Oxford are today taking further steps to deepen our understanding of some of the most complex diseases, such as Parkinson’s,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in the GSK press release. “Together they will harness the power of scientific collaboration to progress cutting-edge technologies and accelerate drug discovery—helping to cement the UK’s role as a life sciences superpower.”

Source: GSK