Janssen Collaborates with BioMedX in Autoimmunity and Drug Delivery Research

BioMed X, an independent German research institute, announced on August 2, 2021 the start of two new research projects with Janssen Research & Development, which is one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (J&J). Both collaborations were facilitated by J&J Innovation.

The aim of the first research group, Protective Tissue Factors in Autoimmune Diseases (PTA), is to develop new approaches to combat chronic inflammatory diseases and identify protective factors in the tissue microenvironment of patients with auto-inflammatory diseases. The overall goal, therefore, would be discovering and validating novel drug targets in these diseases.

“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,” said Mojca Frank Bertoncelj, the new group leader of team PTA, in a press release. “This innovative platform will enable high-throughput testing and discovery of novel joint-protective therapeutics.”

The second research group, Translocation of Complex Macromolecules Across the Intestinal Epithelial Barrier (TMI), aims to discover novel transport mechanisms in the human intestinal tract that could be used for oral delivery of various macromolar therapeutic modalities.

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

Source: BioMed X