NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Janssen Biotech and Johnson & Johnson Innovation today announced a research alliance with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to advance a better understanding of inflammatory bowel disease.
The collaboration will focus on creating a Molecular Interaction Network of Disease in IBD "with the breadth and depth to yield high confidence therapeutic hypotheses to be tested in vitro and in vivo," Janssen said. By using preclinical models, clinical study data, and patient samples, researchers — including computational biologists and translational medicine scientists — from Janssen, a J&J company, and Mount Sinai, will develop clinical methodologies to test hypotheses and identify potential therapeutic targets.
Together, they will investigate disease triggers, identify new opportunities for therapeutic interventions, and develop diagnostics "to facilitate precision medicine and predictive biomarkers."
More than 1.4 million people in the US and 5 million people worldwide are affected by IBD diseases, which are chronic, immune-mediated digestive diseases that include Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, Janssen said.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Janssen said that the collaboration could result in a "multi-million dollar commitment each year over a four-year period in the pursuit of next-generation therapeutic solutions for IBD."
"By bringing together two excellent scientific teams with a shared long-term vision to improve the health of individuals living with IBD, we will harness the joint expertise and capabilities to deepen the scientific understanding of the disease and deliver future innovative medicines and co-diagnostics," Miguel Barbosa, VP, head of Immunology Research & Scientific Partnership Strategy for Janssen R&D, said in a statement.