Lieber Institute Announces Consortium To Identify How Genes Build A Brain With The Goal Of Developing Treatments For Brain Disorders
Contact:
Jean DuBose
[email protected]
410-955-0677
Baltimore, MD – The Lieber Institute for Brain Development (LIBD) and pharmaceutical companies Astellas, Eli Lilly and Company, Lundbeck, Pfizer Inc. and Roche are participating in an early-stage research consortium to analyze RNA, the genomic and epigenetic data obtained from human brains. The goal of the consortium is to expand knowledge around the genetic contribution to brain disorders in the hope of identifying potential new treatment options.
“Our goal in creating this collaboration with the private industry is to speed discoveries that may improve the lives of individuals suffering from brain disorders,” said Daniel R. Weinberger, M.D., Director and CEO of the Lieber Institute. “This consortium is a bold initiative with the potential to have broad relevance across the spectrum of human brain disorders. By uniting diverse scientists from different sectors, we have created a new model of cooperative research that is designed to accomplish ambitious goals with efficiency and focus.”
The Lieber Institute for Brain Development has the world’s most extensive and exquisitely curated collection of human brain specimens, over 1,300 brains, spanning the normal human lifespan from fetal life to late life and hundreds of brain samples from individuals who had developmental brain disorders during life. This rare collection of brain samples offers an opportunity to study how genes and the environment construct a brain, and to potentially identify new and effective treatments for brain illnesse
Astellas, Eli Lilly and Company, Lundbeck, Pfizer and Roche, as members of the consortium, will seek to convert basic scientific findings into potentially new treatment options for people living with developmental brain disorders.
About the Lieber Institute
The Lieber Institute for Brain Development is an independent, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization, and a Maryland tax-exempt medical research institution. The Lieber Institute is an affiliate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and is located on the Johns Hopkins Medical Campus in the new Johns Hopkins Bioscience Park in East Baltimore.
The mission of the Lieber Institute for Brain Development is to translate the understanding of basic genetic and molecular mechanisms of schizophrenia and related developmental brain disorders into clinical advances that change the lives of affected individuals.
