For Immediate Release

July 26, 2010

Contact: Kirsten Hashemi

617-658-7711

Hashemi@bbri.org

New Collaboration on Alzheimer's

Results from Outreach

July 26, 2010 Watertown -- Boston Biomedical Research Institute (BBRI) and Neurophage Pharmaceuticals have initiated a joint research program related to Alzheimer's disease.  The research will be carried out in the laboratory of Dr. Martin Duennwald at BBRI.  Dr. Duennwald, a cell biologist and an expert on protein misfolding and its role in neurodegeneration, will be working with Dr. Rajarman Krishnan from Neurophage, a biophysicist and biochemist, to study changes in the structure of amyloid protein that lead to Alzheimer's Disease.

In this collaboration, Boston Biomedical Research Institute seeks to answer questions concerning the underlying principles of protein misfolding and amyloid aggregation, while Neurophage Pharmaceuticals will expand their already extensive, unique platform for drug development to treat early-stage Alzheimer's disease.  This joint project should advance basic knowledge on protein folding and lead to significant therapeutic advances.

This collaboration is the result of discussions that followed the April 2010 Blout Lecture sponsored by Boston Biomedical Research Institute, featuring Dr. Beka Solomon of Tel Aviv University. The Blout Lecture was established in order to foster collaborations and exchange for the mutual benefit of participating parties. Boston Biomedical Research Institute is pleased to showcase the joint project underway with Neurophage as an example of how the Blout program benefits both science and biotechnology.

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About Boston Biomedical Research Institute

Boston Biomedical Research Institute is an independent nonprofit institute dedicated to basic biomedical research to promote the understanding, treatment and prevention of specific diseases, and to training research scientists.

Investigators focus on the structure and function of proteins that control cellular communication, muscle contractility, cell movement, growth and differentiation and on the underlying causes of human diseases from the study of disease models in order to drive development of novel therapeutics.

About Neurophage Pharmaceuticals

NeuroPhage is a Boston based biotechnology company established in 2006. It is developing a breakthrough protein disaggregation platform for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Our lead Alzheimer's disease (AD) drug candidate, NPT001, safely and effectively disaggregates existing Aβ plaque in preclinical animal models, which is unique among disease-modifying approaches for AD.