BioMed X and Janssen Start Up Research Programs in Autoimmunity and Drug Delivery

BioMed X, an independent German research institute, has joined Janssen Research & Development, one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, to launch two new research projects in the field of autoimmune diseases and drug delivery. The partners have established a new research group, Protective Tissue Factors in Autoimmune Diseases (PTA), which is led by Mojca Frank Bertoncelj, who joins BioMed X from the University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland.

Under the strategic collaboration, Bertoncelj will develop new approaches to combat chronic inflammatory diseases targeting protective factors in the tissue microenvironment of patients with auto-inflammatory diseases. The overall goal of PTA is to discover and validate novel drug targets in these diseases, BioMed X announced in an Aug. 02, 2021 press release.

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

“We aim to develop a 3D human joint-in-a-dish platform that closely mimics the inflamed joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis utilizing diverse methodologies including single-cell omics, gene-editing, bio-scaffold manufacturing, and stem to adult joint cell differentiation. This innovative platform will enable high-throughput testing and discovery of novel joint-protective therapeutics,” said Bertoncelj, new group leader of team PTA, in the press release.

“Our mission is to characterize the human intestinal epithelial barrier and thereby gain insights into how macromolecular therapeutics may be orally delivered. The biology of the barrier will be explored at the cellular and molecular level,” said Kim, new group leader of team TMI, in the press release.

Source: BioMed X