German independent research institute BioMed X has initiated two new research projects with Janssen Research & Development, LLC, one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. The collaboration aims to address two challenging new research areas.  

The new research group PTA (Protective Tissue Factors in Autoimmune Diseases) is led by Mojca Frank Bertoncelj, MD, PhD, who is joining BioMed X from the University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland. Her research group will develop new approaches to combat chronic inflammatory diseases. The aim is to identify protective factors in the tissue microenvironment of patients with auto-inflammatory diseases with the overall goal of discovering and validating novel drug targets in these diseases.

The second research group TMI (Translocation of Complex Macromolecules Across the Intestinal Epithelial Barrier) led by Kyungbo Kim, PhD, aims to discover novel transport mechanisms in the human intestinal tract that could be used for oral delivery of various macromolar therapeutic modalities. Dr. Kim is joining BioMed X from the University of Kentucky in Lexington, USA.

The Founder and Managing Director of the BioMed X Institute, Dr. Christian Tidona, said, “At BioMed X, we achieve our ambitious research goals by recruiting truly outstanding, open-minded scientists from around the world who have very different and complementary expertise. With Dr. Frank Bertoncelj and Dr. Kim, our BioMed X Institute has been able to engage two exceptionally talented scientists who will enable the development of a new generation of targeted therapies.”