Researcher licences Alzheimer’s technology to biotech developer

Halifax, NS – A library of chemical compounds targeting Alzheimer’s disease developed by a Dalhousie University researcher has been licensed to Q-RNA, a New York biotechnology company specializing in protein-misfolding diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

The compounds, which target toxic amyloid deposits related to Alzheimer’s disease and other inflammatory conditions, were developed by Dr Donald Weaver during his tenure with the departments of medicine and chemistry at Queen’s University at Kingston. currently professor of clinical neurology and Canada research chair in neuroscience at Dalhousie University, Dr Weaver continues to advance his drug discovery work in the area of chronic neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy.

The Q-RNA license, which is the result of a collaborative effort between Dalhousie University and PARTEQ Innovations, the technology transfer office of Queen’s University, will provide more than $100,000 annually in research support for Dr Weaver’s Dalhousie University laboratory. Future proceeds resulting from the agreement will be shared equally between Dalhousie and Queen’s University.

“We are very excited about this collaboration. These are the first truly disease-modifying drugs for protein-misfolding diseases,” says L William McIntosh, CEO of Q-RNA. “Dr Weaver’s medicinal chemistry expertise, combined with our company’s biological discovery and validation systems, hold great promise for the development of treatments that may slow down, interrupt, cure or even prevent Alzheimer’s disease.”