Just days after announcing a near $270-million stem cell research deal with Kyoto University, Takeda has unveiled an alliance with Keio University School of Medicine and Niigata University to study disease-related RNA-binding proteins.
Explaining the firm’s interest in the area, Takeda noted that the relationship between disease pathology and RNA-binding proteins has gradually become clearer, and disease onset and progression is now thought to be linked to abnormalities in such proteins.
Under its Shonan Incubation Laboratories initiative – which invites researchers from outside of Takeda’s doors to work on certain projects – the three-year collaboration will search for and analyse disease-related RNA-binding proteins in the hope of creating new therapeutic target candidates and “game-changing” technologies for drug discovery.
“We hope to produce innovative results for drug discovery through the uniting of our research on RNA-binding proteins with Takeda’s science technology platform,” noted Professor Hideyuki Okano, Keio University School of Medicine.
Further terms were not revealed.
