Vect-Horus announced today the signing of a research collaboration agreement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. The goal of this collaboration is to use Vect-Horus’ proprietary technology to transport various Janssen monoclonal antibodies to the brain for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. This deal was facilitated by Johnson & Johnson Innovation Limited.

The first conference entitled “Alzheimer’s disease, fears and hopes” was given at the meeting of the management boards of the french Vaincre l’Alzheimer and the german Alzheimer Forschung Initiative foundations that was held on November 16th 2018 at the Novotel Hotel Marseille Vieux Port.

The latest work from the Neural Degeneration and Plasticity team, in collaboration with the BBB and neuroinflammation team of Michel Khrestchatisky: "The pro-amyloidogenic effects of Membrane-type 1-Matrix Metalloproteinase involve MMP-2 and BACE-1 activities, and the modulation of APP trafficking" is now published in the FASEB Journal (doi: 10.1096/fj.201801076R).

Géraldine Ferracci, manager of the Surface Plasmon Resonance unit at INP's Plateform Interactome Neuro-Timone (PINT), gave a talk at the 6th Biacore Users' Meeting.

Vect-Horus has established a long-term highly efficient collaboration with the Institute of NeuroPhysiopathology INP (UMR7051 CNRS-AMU) directed by Dr. Michel KHRESTCHATISKY, cofounder of the company, and this Partnership signed on November 14, 2018 is a cornerstone in the creation of the LABCOM (Common Research Lab) between the INP and Vect-Horus.

The latest work of the NeuroCyto Team (previously on bioRxiv) is now published in the Journal of Cell Biology. We collaborated with the Roy lab to reveal a new mechanism of slow axonal transport, based on the previous discovery of actin hotspots and trails. Hotspots are static actin clusters that appear and disappear within minutes every 3-4 µm along the axon.

On Friday, November 23, the INP welcomes Professor Emeritus Jean-Michel SCHERRMANN (University of Paris Descartes), for a seminar entitled "Why it is difficult to develop CNS drugs: lack of neuropharmacokinetic considerations?”

Santiago Rivera represented the INP on the 1st Congress of the 7 CoENs (International Neetwork of Centers of Excellence in Neurodegeneration) held in Montpellier on October 18 and 19, 2018, endorsed by AVIESAN: Bordeaux, Grenoble, Lille, Montpellier, Marseille, Paris and Toulouse. He gave a lecture in the CoEN Pathfinder laureates’ session entitled MT-MMPs at the crossroads of amyloidogenesis and neuroinflammation in Alzheimer's disease.

The Emergence project entitled “Tau, from Alzheimer disease to glioblastoma, evolution of a prognostic marker” was selected by the Canceropole PACA to be founded by the GEFLUC (groupement des entreprises françaises dans la lutte contre le cancer). Team 9 has a long-time expertise on Tau and this grant will be used to complete the identification of the kinases responsible for Tau phosphorylation in glioblastoma.

Photo from the GEFLUC

On September 12, over 300 students, teachers, researchers, clinicians and entrepreneurs participated in the launch of NeuroSchool, the school that unifies and harmonizes the teachings of the third year of the bachelor's degree (Neuroscience path), the master's degree and the PhD program in neuroscience. Funded by the National Research Agency and the A*Midex Foundation, NeuroSchool will benefit from a funding of approximately 10 million euros (over 10 years).