The biopharamaceutical company Pantherna Therapeutics GmbH is based in Hennigsdorf near Berlin and explores the use of lipid-nanoparticle formulated mRNA for therapeutic vaccination. After extensive cosulting by the team “Patents and Licences” at Charité BIH Innovation, a new collaboration contract was formed with Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin this September. The future collaboration between Pantherna and the clinical researchers at the Charité Department of Neurology and Experimental Neurology aims to intensively explore the potential of Panthernas PTX-mRNA- and PTX-LNP-technologies als therapeutic agent for autoimmune diseases.
Neurological conditions such as Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) are caused by auto-antibodies attacking endogenous proteins and consequently destroying essential cells such as astrocytes or oligodendrocytes. The result can be inflammations of the central nervous system and usually affect the optic nerve, spinal cord or brainstem. Despite immunosuppressive amelioration of the symptoms no specific treatment exists for this rare debilitating chronic disease.
Prof. Friedemann Paul, Dr. Maria Hastermann and their team at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin unravel the pathological basis for autoimmunity in NMOSD and strive to find novel therapeutic modalities. Subject of thee collaboration is the conduct of preclinical studies, addressing the suitability of novel LNP-compositions to control tolerogenic immune responses.
Dr. Ansgar Santel, head of department translational research and alliance management at Pantherna Therapeutics, comments: “The collaboration between Pantherna and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin allows us to unify the efforts of both teams at discovering the true potential of mRNA and find out how to harness it. We’re looking forward to a fruitful collaboration.“
Dr. Maria Hastermann is equally optimistic about this cooperation: “The collaboration with Pantherna is more than promising. We hope to quickly find a sustainable solution for improving the lives of patients with diseases such as NMOSD. We also want to thank the team at Charité BIH Innovation for the support during the formation of the collaboration contract and for the future accompaniment of the translation of our approach into practice.“
Learn more about Pantherna Therpeutics here. Contact person is Dr. Ansgar Santel (a.santel@pantherna-therapeutics.com).
Learn more about the Charité Department of Neurology and Experimental Neurology here. Contact person is Dr. Maria Hastermann (maria.hastermann@charite.de).
Learn more about the services of the technology transfer office Charité BIH Innovation here.