ViiV Healthcare has announced a collaboration with Radboud University Medical Centre in The Netherlands, in order to identify new drug targets for HIV.
ViiV will provide the centre with dedicated funding to enhance the HIV-specific capability of the Human Functional Genomics Project (HFGP).
The five-year collaboration will aim to process anonymised patient data, genetic information and environmental factors to better understand the biology associated with HIV and identify early targets for new medicines.
Under the supervision of a Scientific Management Board (SMB), the medical centre will significantly expand the study called – “HIV 2000+” – of HIV-infected individuals that are part of the HFGP from 200 to 2000 people.
The data from the study will be used to look at the predictors and pathways of diseases that are specific to people living with HIV and how they might differ from other disease areas and from healthy people who do not have HIV.
Using that information, the goal is to identify early stage drug targets that ViiV Healthcare could use to develop new medicines or approaches to treat HIV infection.
Mihai Netea, Professor and head of the Division of Experimental Internal Medicine at the Centre, said: “This is a unique collaboration which will combine for the first time in-depth clinical and pathophysiological phenotyping with a systems biology approach in a large population of patients with HIV.
“It is a unique chance to understand better the HIV infection and its complications, and to partner with ViiV Healthcare to translate that knowledge to the bed of the patient.”
