SYNAPCELL re-establishes partnership with the University of Utah

The University of Utah has awarded a subcontract to SYNAPCELL as part of the NIH/NINDS Epilepsy Therapy Screening Program (ETSP). The partnership between SYNAPCELL and the University of Utah will supplement the University’s ongoing Anticonvulsant Drug Development (ADD) Program to test the efficacy of promising anti-epileptic drug candidates in SYNAPCELL’s proprietary MTLE (Mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy) mouse, a translational model of therapy-resistant epilepsy.

The ETSP’s contract to the ADD Program has since its inception in 1974 focused on the identification of promising new drug treatments for epilepsy and has made important contributions to the development of several FDA-approved drugs for epilepsy. Although there are a number of anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) on the market, the present challenge for new therapy development is to be able to differentiate promising new investigational AEDs from existing drugs and to discover treatments for yet-incurable diseases such as pharmaco-resistant epilepsies.

“We find in SYNAPCELL a predictive rodent model of therapy-resistant MTLE that supplements our evaluation capabilities and addresses an important recommendation of the NINDS Working Group. SYNAPCELL provides a team of investigators that possess unique knowledge and expertise in integrated electrophysiology and epilepsy. These competencies will increase the translational potential of investigational compounds and supplement evaluation capabilities of the University of Utah for the ETSP.” said Pr. Karen S. Wilcox, Chair of Pharmacology and Toxicology at University of Utah.

“Being selected for the second time in a row as the privileged partner of the Anticonvulsant Drug Development Program (ADD) of the University of Utah is a great honor for SYNAPCELL. This confirms all the efforts our team has put together to become a strategic member of the program”, said Corinne Roucard, CEO of SYNAPCELL, “We are very proud to provide the ETSP workflow with Go/NoGo decision criteria on compounds efficacy with our EEG-based screening tools, backed by over 11 years of best-in-class research and innovation on Epilepsy along with other CNS Disorders. This represents a major milestone in the discovery of novel anti-epileptic treatments that patients will benefit in the near future.”