Eisai and Boston University School of Medicine have formed a research collaboration to study the effects of Alzheimer's disease-associated genetic variants on the behavior of brain cells, called microglia.
Under the two-year agreement, Eisai's immuno-dementia discovery research team at its Andover innovative Medicines (AiM) Institute will work with principal investigator Tsuneya Ikezu, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics and Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine, to study the functional impact of AD-associated genetic variants on microglial biology.
"Microglia are the latest brain cell types of intense investigation at both basic and translational neuroscience research levels, and their genetic association with Alzheimer's disease is only strengthened by report after report. Development of cellular platform to study microglia biology is essential for the research community and R&D in the industry," said Dr. Ikezu.
Eisai has spent over 33 years working on the development of potential treatments, including Donepezil, the first compound found to show improvements on cognitive clinical scales, such as the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale cognitive subscale (ADAS-cog) and Clinician's Interview-based Impression of Change with caregiver input (CIBIC+).