A two year, EUR 675,000 grant has been awarded to Professor Erich Wanker of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch and of the Excellence Cluster Neurocure.

Prof. Wanker will use the grant in order to speed up the search for active agents to treat protein misfolding diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

The MDC, a member institution of the Helmholtz Association, will match the grant amount bringing the total funding for the study to EUR 1.35 million.

Professor Wanker, and his team will use the grant to create a standardized screening platform to identify active agents that the pharmaceutical industry can use. The team’s goal is that the study results in the establishment of a spin-off company. The key element of the project will be to develop a system that identifies active agents that impact protein aggregates that are harmful for brain cells.

Protein aggregation is a biological phenomenon in which mis-folded proteins aggregate (accumulate and clump together). Often, protein aggregates are toxic and they play a considerable role in common neurological diseases, such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, or the rare Huntington’s disease.

In the pathogenesis of these diseases, specific proteins are mis-folded in the brain cells, causing a aggregation of toxic structures that cannot be disposed of.

As a result of these toxic structures, brain cells deteriorate in the affected patient, ultimately – depending on the disease and the protein – leading to movement disorders, psychosis, memory loss and dementia. Approximately 40 diseases, including diabetes mellitus, can be attributed to protein misfolding.

Professor Wanker, and his team have been researching protein misfolding for more than a decade. During this time they have developed new concepts and techniques to examine active agents for their skill to meddle in protein misfolding processes.

The researchers found that a green tea extract called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), attaches to toxin misfolded products and modulates these into nontoxic structures.

The techniques the team has used up till now, including a high-throughput robotic system they developed to examine interactions among proteins but also between proteins and other substances, will be included into a technology platform to test larger libraries of potential active agents. The team received the Erwin Schrödinger Prize for research in this area in 2008.

According to the Helmholtz Association announcement, the new Helmholtz Validation Fund, will also fund a project of the Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf and the Research Center Jülich. The goal of the project is to enhance imaging techniques for developing drugs to treat Alzheimer’s.

Until 2015, the Initiative and Networking Fund of the Helmholtz Association has assigned a total of EUR 26 million to the Helmholtz Validation Fund to fund projects at Helmholtz centers. Including the matching funds from the centers, over EUR 50 million will be available for technology transfer projects.

Written by Grace Rattue