Boehringer Ingelheim recently announced a new collaboration with four leading U.S. scientific institutions to advance research and development of new therapeutic strategies for patients living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. The four new partners of the company are the Massachusetts General Hospital, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Weill Cornell Medicine, and Scripps Research Institute.
The goal of these partnerships is to identify and assess biomarkers and novel therapeutic targets to answer the unmet medical needs of IBD patients. All four institutions support Boehringer Ingelheim’s vision of transforming how immune diseases are treated.
“Academia-industry collaborations are an extraordinarily effective way to advance research and we recognize the importance of joining forces with leading experts to effectively develop innovative therapies,” said Clive Wood, senior corporate vice president Discovery Research at Boehringer Ingelheim in the company’s press release. “We must gain a better understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the onset and development of IBD-related diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. With these collaborations, we aim to transform the treatment of immune diseases to ultimately improve lives of patients and those who care for them.”
The partners at the Icahn School of Medicine, Dr. Andrea Cerutti, Dr. Miriam Merad, and Dr. Sergio Lira, will help define the innate and adaptive immune response mechanisms characteristic of ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Dr. Frederick Ausubel at Massachusetts General Hospital will focus on pioneering, high-throughput genetic and chemical screenings to uncover host-environment interactions that are compromised in IBD patients. At the Scripps Research Institute, Dr. Andrew Su and Dr. Dennis Wolan will work toward a better understanding of the role played by specific bacterial enzymes in the onset of ulcerative colitis. Finally, at Weill Cornell Medicine, Dr. Gregory Sonnenberg and Dr. David Artis will be dedicated to an integrated pre-clinical and translational research program focused on cellular targets and processes involved in the maintenance of the gut mucosal barrier.
The collaboration between Boehringer Ingelheim scientists and leading experts at each partner institution is expected to accelerate cutting-edge research and to promote the sharing of data. As part of the partnerships established, Boehringer Ingelheim will offer technological, scientific, and financial support to the four institutions.