Proteomics firm KineMed and Bristol-Myers Squibb have extended their collaboration on Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases, KineMed said this week.
Under the extension, KineMed will grant BMS a non-exclusive license to its technology for the identification and characterization of Alzheimer's biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid.
The companies didn't identify what biomarkers they would be investigating, but much of KineMed's past Alzheimer's work has focused on monitoring changes in microtubule dynamics by measuring related CSF biomarkers. The company's platform uses stable isotope labeling with mass spectrometry to measure the rates of change in various disease-related metabolic pathways.
In the June 2010 edition of Neuroscience KineMed scientists published a study tracking turnover levels of the protein tubulin in brain microtubule populations that suggested that changes in microtubule turnover can be used as a biomarker for the synaptic plasticity involved in memory formation.
Financial and other terms of the deal were not disclosed.