GSK提供500万美元进一步开发生物电子学研究

作者：王韵壹、李英、熊慧卿

2014年10月4日讯 /生物谷BIOON/ --生物医药巨头葛兰素史克公司最近宣布公司将提供5百万美元的创新资金用于支持生物电子医药设备的研发。这一基金的主要资助对象是学术机构和小型生物医药公司。公司希望通过资助以上这些单位能为公司在生物电子医药领域的发展提供帮助，进而在这一领域占得先机。

不同于以往的口服或是注射药物，这种生物电子疗法主要是通过一种小型可移植设备来检测人体体内神经元等细胞的电子信号来对疾病做出反应。研究人员认为在许多人体代谢紊乱疾病如炎症性肠病、关节炎、哮喘、高血压和糖尿病等都会导致患者体内电信号的异常。而监控和处理这种异常则可能是治疗上述疾病的一个新方向。因此自从2013年底开始，葛兰素史克公司就开始组织进行这一领域的研究。而葛兰素史克公司表示为了推动这一领域的长期发展，全世界任何学术机构都可以无偿使用通过这一资金开发出的任何技术和设备。公司希望通过这种模式进一步建立起一种产学合作的模式以进一步加强公司与科研机构的合作。

葛兰素史克公司的这一设想的背景是美国总统奥巴马此前提出的一项"使用先进革新型神经技术的人脑研究(Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies,BRAIN)"。美国政府希望在2014年启动这一计划，可以预见，葛兰素史克公司的生物电子疗法研究也会在这一领域中占得先机。（生物谷Bioon.com）

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详细英文报道：

GSK today announced a $5 million Innovation Challenge Fund (ICF) to further encourage and advance collaborative research as part of its effort to develop bioelectronic medicines. The fund will support academic groups and small companies who want to develop solutions for GSK's Bioelectronics Innovation Challenge, which was developed by a group of leading scientists from around the world. This funding programme is in addition to GSK's prior commitment of a $1 million award, announced in December 2013, for the team that first solves the Challenge.

Bioelectronic medicine is a relatively new scientific field which could one day result in a new class of treatments that would not be pills or injections but miniaturised, implantable devices. The hope is that these devices could be programmed to read and correct the electrical signals that pass along the nerves of the body, to treat disorders as diverse as inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis, asthma, hypertension and diabetes. Since 2013, GSK has committed significant resource to research in this field.

To encourage open innovation in the field of bioelectronic medicine, any tools and technologies that come from the ICF funded work and the Innovation Challenge's winning entry will be made freely available to the global research community. The intention is that this will foster an environment of collaboration between researchers from different institutions and accelerate the development of this new generation of medicines.

These new commitments were announced by GSK at a White House forum to recognise the progress made in President Obama's Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative. The forum highlighted the development and application of innovative technologies that can create a dynamic understanding of the brain, with the goal of helping find new ways to treat, cure, and even prevent disease.

In addition to the focus on brain mapping and brain disorders, the US neurotechnology research community has during 2014 made significant commitments to study how nerve signals outside the brain and spine may be altered to treat disease related to our organs. To further those efforts, the National Institutes of Health has announced the $248 million Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC) programme and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has launched the $79 million Electrical Prescriptions (ElectRx) programme. These programmes complement and significantly expand the funding GSK is providing to researchers and entrepreneurs in this emerging field. Together, such peripheral nerve-focused research will build the foundation for the future bioelectronic medicines GSK is working to deliver to patients.

"We see the development of bioelectronic medicines as a collaborative process that will only be successful with the combined skills of world-leading engineers, physiologists, neuroscientists and informatics experts," said Moncef Slaoui, Chairman of Global R&D and Vaccines at GSK. "Through this fund we're announcing today and the $1 Innovation Challenge, we hope to address a critical need for that research community. The technology we target will unlock the next research phase towards a new class of treatments for patients."