RICHMOND, Calif., July 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Sangamo
BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGMO) announced today that it has been awarded a
second round of funding by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for
Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) to support studies in non-human
primates for the development of a ZFP Therapeutic™ to treat
Parkinson’s disease (PD). The $900,000 award will be paid over a period
of two years.
Sangamo has developed zinc finger DNA-binding protein
transcription factors (ZFP TFs) to activate the expression of glial
cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), a potent neurotrophic
factor that has shown promise in preclinical testing to slow or
stop the progression of Parkinson’s disease. In earlier preclinical
studies also funded by MJFF and carried out by Sangamo scientists
and their collaborators, a ZFP TF activator of GDNF was shown to be
neuroprotective, resulting in positive functional improvements in a
validated rat model of PD.
“We are very enthusiastic about this novel ZFP Therapeutic
approach to Parkinson’s disease,” said Krystof Bankiewicz, M.D., Ph.D., Professor
of Neurosurgery and Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco
(UCSF), whose group is collaborating with Sangamo on the
preclinical animal studies. “We believe that GDNF is an excellent
therapeutic target for PD. However, using a ZFP TF to turn on
the expression of the native GDNF gene in the brain rather than
adding GDNF protein or a copy of the GDNF gene, enables the
achievement of physiological levels of this potent neuroprotective
factor. Based on our earlier success with a ZFP activator of
GDNF in the rat model we look
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