Consortium with OBD receives ?4m Horizon 2020 fund

RNS Number : 0169B

Oxford BioDynamics PLC

18 September 2018

 

18 September 2018

Oxford BioDynamics Plc

("OBD" or the "Company" and, together with its subsidiaries, the "Group")

Consortium including Oxford BioDynamics receives €4 million Horizon 2020 award

•      Horizon 2020 is the largest European funding programme for research and innovation

•      The consortium brings together established leaders in theoretical and experimental epigenetic research to advance the use of predictive epigenetics into real world applications

·     OBD, as an industry partner, is well positioned to access commercial opportunities arising from successful new applications of the EpiSwitch™ technology

Oxford BioDynamics Plc is pleased to announce that it has been chosen as an industrial partner in a Horizon 2020 international research and innovation collaboration. The initiative on "Predictive Epigenetics" (PEP-NET), which has been granted €4 million, brings together an international consortium of 11 leading epigenetic research centres and five partner organisations* to develop practical translation of epigenetic regulation into therapeutically actionable outcomes.

The PEP-NET consortium comprises experimentalists and theoreticians whose goal is to develop a joint predictive modelling framework to further the understanding of fundamental epigenetic mechanisms. The outcome will present real world applications for the development of new technologies, and diagnostic and therapeutic tools to benefit patients.

This will be an important opportunity for OBD to increase utilisation of its EpiSwitch™ platform and further develop its technology globally, while helping to improve understanding of epigenetic controls and mechanisms. As an industry partner in this initiative, all parties will have access to OBD's intellectual property for research purposes only.

Consortium member Professor Leonie Ringrose, Institute of Biology, Humboldt University, Berlin, commented:

"Epigenetic mechanisms are profoundly implicated in human health and disease. Despite the availability of large amounts of molecular data sets today, the field is still far from a satisfactory mechanistic understanding of many epigenetic processes. This unique collaboration of frontline researchers and commercial companies aims to combine quantitative experiments, predictive theoretical models, new modeling of data analysis and latest industrial tools of detection and monitoring to understand epigenetic regulation, with the aim to achieve both deeper fundamental understanding and better practical translation of epigenetic regulation into actionable patient stratifications. We have seen the practical value of EpiSwitch™ and believe this powerful platform will allow us to develop real world solutions.

PEP-NET will train a generation of European researchers to combine quantitative experiments with predictive theoretical models, and will exploit this knowledge to answer both basic and applied questions in epigenetics."

Alexandre Akoulitchev, Chief Scientific Officer of Oxford BioDynamics, added:

"We are delighted to join such a powerful and creative group of established leaders in epigenetic research. Our technology will help better the understanding of epigenetic controls and mechanisms, with the ultimate goal to help translate latest epigenetic insights for the benefit of novel successful therapies, as well as patient diagnosis and prognosis. We strongly believe that our platform could be creatively utilised in many new ways to contribute to the frontline research and to further the development of OBD's EpiSwitch™ technology globally. We are well aware how much the industry is looking for robust biomarkers with predictive and prognostic disseminating power. This is very much a question of understanding epigenetic controls, if we are to deliver reliable practical tools for applications in personalised medicine. "

-ENDS-

For further details please contact:

Oxford BioDynamics Plc Christian Hoyer Millar, CEO Paul Stockdale, CFO	[phone]
FTI Consulting Financial Public Relations Adviser Brett Pollard Natalie Garland-Collins	[phone]

Notes for Editors

About Oxford BioDynamics Plc

Oxford BioDynamics Plc (AIM: OBD) ("Oxford BioDynamics") is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of epigenetic biomarkers for use within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry.

The Company's award-winning, proprietary technology platform, EpiSwitch™, aims to accelerate the drug discovery and development process, improve the success rate of therapeutic product development and take advantage of the increasing importance of personalised medicine.

In particular, EpiSwitch™ can reduce time to market, failure rates and the costs at every stage of drug discovery. Additionally, the technology provides significant insights into disease mechanisms for drug discovery and product re‐positioning programmes and enables the personalisation of therapeutics for patients in the context of challenging pricing environments where improved clinical outcomes are critical.

Oxford BioDynamics is headquartered in the UK, and listed on the London Stock Exchange's AIM under the ticker "OBD". For more information please visit www.oxfordbiodynamics.com.

About Horizon 2020

Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020) - in addition to the private investment that this money will attract. It promises more breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market.

For further information, please see: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en

*About the PEP-NET Consortium

The PEP-NET consortium is led by Professor Leonie Ringrose at the Institute of Biology, Humboldt University (Berlin). It will also involve Max-Planck from the Institute for Molecular Genetics (Munich), and Computational and System Biology at John Innes Centre (Norwich), Niels Bohr at the Institute at University of Copenhagen, Friedrich Miescher at the Institute for Biomedical Research (Basel), European Research Centre for Biology and Medicine (Strasbourg), the Institute for Medical Systems biology at Max Delbruck Centre for Molecular Medicine (Berlin-Buch), the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford,  the Department of Physics at the University of Naples, the Centre of Experimental Imaging at the Hospital of St Raphael (Milan), as well as Diagenode (Belgium). Other partner organisations include the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Adelaide, the Department of Physiology at the University of Pennsylvania, Oxford Nanoimaging Ltd, and the University of East Anglia.

 

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