Charles River Laboratories and Aitia Partner on Neurodegenerative Disease and Oncology Drug Development

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Aitia, a drug development and drug discovery technology company, announced on Nov. 13, 2023 a partnership with Charles River Laboratories, a contract development and manufacturing organization. Under the partnership, Aitia will be given access to Logica, Charles River’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered drug solution platform. Aitia will use Logica across its portfolio of novel drug targets to create potential treatments for neurological indications, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases, as well as a variety of cancer treatments. The partnership also includes co-development of patient-derived xenograft (PDX) Digital Twins for in-vivo oncology research.

“Unraveling the complex genetic and molecular circuitry of neurodegenerative disorders is critical to the discovery of treatments that significantly slow or reverse these devastating diseases,” said Colin Hill, chief executive officer and co-founder of Aitia, in a press release. “I do not believe we will get there without the insights from our Digital Twins, which, now combined with the advantages of Logica, positions Aitia to rapidly translate our discoveries into novel drug candidates. We are excited to join forces with Charles River, leveraging their decades of industry expertise in research to fuel our R&D efforts.”

“Combining Aitia’s Digital Twins with Logica’s next-generation solution stands to transform the discovery and development of novel therapeutics for neurological diseases and oncology,” said Professor Julie Frearson, PhD, corporate senior vice-president and chief scientific officer, Charles River, in the press release. “The research landscape for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s has moved slowly in recent years, and we are excited for the impact that this combined AI solution can deliver to patients.”

Logica, offered as a fully managed, risk-sharing model, uses predictive models, chemical design, synthesis capabilities, DNA-encoded libraries, in-silico high throughput screening, and other capabilities to create target-to-candidate offerings. “Logica has optimized drug discovery,” said Emilio Cordova, executive director, Logica, in the press release. “Combining laboratory infrastructure, expert drug hunters, and large-scale compute capabilities, Logica eliminates whitespace and rapidly delivers results.”

Source: Aitia