MDA Symposium Looks at Partnerships Between Industry and Academia

^-A ⁺A

Enhancing collaboration and transfer of technology between academia and industry was the subject of MDA's recent Translational Research Symposium, one of a series of four MDA-sponsored research symposia scheduled in 2012.

The symposium was held June 27 in New Orleans, in conjunction with the 2012 New Directions in Biology and Disease of Skeletal Muscle Conference.

About 150 people attended and heard speakers drawn from the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, academia, voluntary health organizations and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Jane Larkindale, MDA's director of translational research, was among the presenters.

Attendees learned that, to enhance the chances of partnering with the pharmaceutical industry, investigators conducting early-stage research should:

• use state-of-the-art methodology;
• increase their attention to future regulatory issues; and
• increase their attention to their choice of disease models (for example, mice or rats with a disease that mimics the human disease).

"Translating research from a laboratory setting to an effective therapeutic agent is a very difficult process," Larkindale said. "During this symposium, the various stakeholders in the process learned more about how the other groups operate and how to work together more efficiently. There is real interest from large companies to develop therapies for rare diseases at this time, and MDA aims to help get new ideas from our basic science program into truly translational studies."

More on translational research

To learn more about translational research and MDA's role in funding it, see the following:

• Why Does It Take So Long To Go From Mouse to Man?, Quest magazine, January 2012
• MDA Venture Philantropy (MVP), a website that explains MDA's drug development program

MDA 2012 symposium series

In addition to the translational research symposium, MDA’s 2012 series includes three other meetings:

• MDA-AFM Gene Therapy Symposium (May 17, 2012, Philadelphia). This meeting looked at overcoming immunologic obstacles to gene therapy for neuromuscular diseases. It was held in conjunction with the Association Française Contre les Myopathies (French Association Against Myopathies)
• MDA Neuron Symposium (May 21-22, Tucson, Ariz.). Top experts in the field discussed the role of nervous system support cells called glia in the degeneration of motor neurons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
• MDA Muscle Symposium (Sept. 11-12, Washington, D.C.). The multiple aspects of developing newborn screening for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) will be the focus of this meeting.