GSK is pumping 50 million pounds sterling (about $65 million) into a five-year collaboration with the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals to more precisely treat immune-related respiratory and kidney diseases, the London-based pharma giant announced in an Oct. 21 release.
Called the Cambridge-GSK Translational Immunology Collaboration (CG-TIC), the partnership will build on GSK and Cambridge’s existing relationship to find new ways to use existing treatments and to develop novel therapies, the company said. The team will focus on understanding mechanisms of disease onset, disease progression, patient response to therapies and developing translational biomarkers, according to the release.
CG-TIC will combine patient data with AI and machine learning, with the researchers homing in on hard-to-treat kidney and lung diseases. The team’s findings will then power the discovery and development of new therapies, according to the release.
“We’re excited to build on our existing work with the University of Cambridge to further this world-leading scientific and technological capability in the U.K.,” GSK’s chief scientific officer Tony Wood, Ph.D., said in the release. “By bringing together Cambridge’s expertise and our own internal capabilities, including understanding of the immune system and the use of AI to accelerate drug development, we have an opportunity to help patients struggling with complex disease.”
This deal marks GSK's second academic partnership in as many weeks, with the company announcing last week that it is teaming up with researchers from Boston University and Boston Medical Center to develop new models for lung diseases like pulmonary fibrosis.