NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Regulus Therapeutics today announced it is collaborating with researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine to develop treatments for angiogenic disease using microRNA therapeutics.
The collaboration combines Regulus' miRNA platform with UCSD's expertise in animal models of angiogenesis. The collaboration recently received a UC Discovery Grant that promotes work between the university's researchers and industry.
Financial terms of the grant were not disclosed.
David Cheresh, professor of pathology at the UCSD School of Medicine and principal investigator on the grant, said in a statement that research by his colleagues and him suggest miRNA-132 may be a novel angiogenic switch that turns on angiogenesis in quiescent endothelial cells and that it may be a target for decreasing blood vessel formation.
"The object of our collaborative work with Regulus is to advance these initial discoveries and discover additional microRNAs involved in angiogenic diseases," Cheresh said.