License Agreement for the Commercialization of Zebrafish model for Childhood Epilepsy Will Provide New Opportunities for Novel Antiepileptic Drug Discovery.
PRESS RELEASE
San Francisco & Barcelona, July 2nd 2018 – ZeClinics SL, a leading zebrafish preclinical CRO, announced today that it has signed a licensing agreement with the Office of Technology Management, now within UCSF Innovation Ventures, which leads licensing and business development efforts on behalf of the university for the commercialization of drug discovery assays in childhood epilepsy by using scn1Lab mutant zebrafish. This line, only the first of many to follow, was characterized by Drs. Scott Baraban and Aliesha Griffin at UCSF, it mimics the convulsive behavioral and seizures associated with epilepsy and has a proven track record in successfully identifying new treatments against epileptic disorders, with three compounds currently entering clinical phases I and II. The clinical trials will be conducted by Epygenix Therapeutics, a precision medicine-based biopharmaceutical company co-founded by Dr. Baraban focusing on developing drugs that treat Dravet syndrome (DS) and other genetic epilepsies.
ZeClinics and Dr. Scott Baraban’s team share a common dedication to the zebrafish model and the study of epilepsy with gene editing techniques such as CRISPR/Cas9. Based in the San Francisco biotech hub, Baraban’s laboratory specializes in neurobiological research with zebrafish and stem cell therapies. ZeClinics in turn is headquartered in Barcelona, one of the top European bioclusters, and focuses on zebrafish-based services across a broad array of therapeutic areas. By combining UCSF’s zebrafish line and ZeClinics’ phenotypic screening expertise, both partners expect to streamline preclinical antiepileptic drug discovery for biopharma companies across the world.
“We are excited to experience the major benefits of employing zebrafish scn1Lab mutants for screening our clients’ compound libraries” says Dr. Davide D’Amico, CEO and Co-Founder of ZeClinics. “This will be the first time this zebrafish disease model is commercially available to the preclinical market.” By in-licensing innovative technologies from prestigious academic institutions such as UCSF, ZeClinics aims to broaden currently available neurodegenerative disease models and offer a more tailored approach to antiepileptic drug screenings.
About Zeclinics SL
ZeClinics is an innovative biotech firm committed to streamlining discovery and preclinical development of novel compounds with zebrafish; an ideal vertebrate model for fast, cost-effective and highly predictive assessments. We work collaboratively with top-tier academic institutions with a diversified, cutting edge expertise including CRISPR-licensed gene editing, high-throughput safety and efficacy assays to disease models to develop and deliver better services and products for our customers. For more information, please or visit www.zeclinics.com or contact us.