Overview

Allied Minds and Wayne State University have partnered to establish GliaGen LLC, which specializes in developing novel screening technologies to measure cellular stress and cell death. The company has secured exclusive platform technology developed by Dr. Leon Carlock and Dr. Maria Cypher of the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University School of Medicine.

Prior to undertaking animal or human trials, modern drug developers need to understand how cells respond to investigational drugs. Current assays to define the stress and toxic responses are based upon detecting changes in the end products of the three basic cellular processes required for cellular life: DNA replication, DNA transcription into RNA, and RNA translation into protein. There is no simple system today developers can use to study or measure ribosomal translational activity in normal, stressed, or dying cells.

That is about to change. GliaGen’s proprietary Translation Regulated (“TR”) technology provides a uniquely sensitivity and immediate assessment of human ribosome response to cellular disruptive processes, delivering a straightforward readout of cellular state much earlier than other assays allow. GliaGen’s technology will enable researchers to determine much more quickly during drug development whether or not a compound of interest has adverse reactions on cells or tissues. It can provide a comprehensive platform for targeted drug responses and aid in the selection of superior drugs via molecular, translation-validated readouts from both in-vitro and in-vivo systems.

Harvard University professor of neurology Ole Isacson serves as a scientific adviser to GliaGen’s co-founders.