Boehringer Ingelheim joins Structural Genomics Consortium – for further research into uncurable diseases

Today Boehringer Ingelheim announced that it has joined the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC). The consortium intends to promote research into protein structures and epigenetics that could pave the way for the development of novel therapies for previously uncurable diseases.As a member of the SGC, Boehringer Ingelheim will help fund precompetitive drug research aimed at bringing new, more effective medicines to patients faster. The SGC is based at the Universities of Toronto, Canada, and Oxford, England.

The SGC and Boehringer Ingelheim will work together on different research projects aimed at identifying small molecules that can enhance or inhibit the activity of proteins involved in epigenetic control. The study of epigenetics addresses heritable changes in gene function that occur without a change in the DNA sequence. Alterations in these processes are linked to many common diseases such as cancer, diabetes, inflammation, obesity and several psychiatric diseases. The discovery of new chemical probes is hoped to contribute to dramatic increases in our understanding of these processes and some of these probes may also provide starting points for drug discovery.

“We are excited about being able to join the SGC”, said Dr. Adrian Carter, Corporate Vice President of Global Research Networking of Boehringer Ingelheim. He added, “this is a unique opportunity to work on unprecedented science in a precompetitive public-private partnership with a large global scientific network . We hope that it will help us in starting new drug discovery programs in areas of high unmet medical need”.

About The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC)

Located at the Universities of Toronto and Oxford, the not-for-profit organization supports the discovery of new medicines by carrying open access research in structural and chemical biology. More than 200 researchers in academia and in eight pharmaceutical companies collaborate within SGC to accomplish these goals. The SGC is also funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, CFI, Genome Canada, the Ontario’s MEDI, and the Wellcome Trust. More information is available at www.thesgc.org.