NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Second Genome today announced a partnership with the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine to support the development of therapeutics for multiple disease indications.
The partners will begin with inflammatory bowel disease, metabolic disorders, and colorectal cancer. As part of the deal, Second Genome will identify up to eight clinical indications where the microbiome may play a role in the disease, and it will collaborate with Mayo researchers on microbiome research.
Mayo will provide human clinical samples in targeted disease areas, and using its proprietary microbiome discovery platform, Second Genome will identify biological pathways implicated in disease. The South San Francisco, Calif.-based firm also will use its platform to discover new therapies targeting these microbiome-mediated pathways.
Mayo is making an equity investment of an undisclosed amount in Second Genome as part of the partnership.
Second Genome said that it will be able to access Mayo's clinical and research expertise in retrospective and prospective studies in various diseases, and the agreement will strengthen its drug discovery programs in inflammatory bowel disease and metabolic disease, while enabling it to move into new disease areas, such as colorectal cancer.
The partnership "represents a broad and significant effort in our attempt to develop therapeutics targeting microbiome-mediated pathways," Heidi Nelson, director of the microbiome program at the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, said in a statement.