Cellumen, Inc. today announced an agreement with the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) to apply Cellumen’s Cellular Systems Biology (CSB) technology to create a cellular model of Alzheimer’s disease.

The main objective of the partnership is for Cellumen to develop a panel of CSB assays, as well as biosensors of key protein:protein interactions, that reveal the activity of multiple targets and pathways implicated in Alzheimer’s disease in an intact, functioning cellular system.

“Our alliance with the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation allows Cellumen to implement its Cellular Systems Biology expertise to enable lead discovery for Alzheimer’s disease,” says D. Lansing Taylor, Ph.D., CEO of Cellumen. “We have the opportunity to revolutionize the treatment of this complex disease by providing pharmaceutical companies with the necessary tools to identify novel chemical modulators of the AD systems biology. Our ability to use the cell as an integrated, interactive network of genes, proteins, and metabolites sets us apart, and enables us to address this unmet medical need.”

“Cellumen is on the cutting edge of building cellular models of disease, thus accelerating the discovery process for systems-based diseases such as Alzheimer’s,” says Howard Fillit, M.D., Executive Director of the ADDF.