UCB debuts two major projects for epilepsy in UK

The UK subsidiary of Belgian drugmaker UCB (Euronext Brussels: UCB) yesterday announced two new projects that aim to help meet the needs of the epilepsy community and improve the lives of people with epilepsy.

A two-year research collaboration with Imperial College London will see the organizations combine resources and expertise with the objective of identifying master genetic regulators of brain networks underlying epileptic activity which can lead to the discovery of novel drug targets. This is the first time that some of the cutting edge technologies, such as RNA sequencing and genome-wide approaches, will be applied in translational epilepsy research, says UCB.

Commenting on the partnership Michael Johnson, consultant and Honorary Reader in Neurology at Imperial College London and his colleague Enrico Petretto, senior lecturer in Genomic Medicine at Imperial College London, said: “Up to 30% of people with epilepsy do not respond to currently available treatments and still have uncontrolled seizures, and this situation has remained largely unchanged despite several new drugs in the past 20 years. Therefore, a new approach to drug development in epilepsy is required. The aim of our partnership with UCB is to use state of the art genomic approaches to identify causal molecular pathways for epilepsy and ultimately identify and validate new drug targets to modify these pathways.”