This text is part of the special Research section
The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, called the Neuro and affiliated with McGill University, has become, since its creation in 1934, the largest research and clinical care establishment specializing in neuroscience in Canada. He has been working for around ten years with an early phase drug discovery platform which has enabled numerous partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies such as eNUVIO Inc., based in Montreal. Through collaborative work, they hope to find treatments to treat neurological disorders or neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s.
Neurological disorders can affect anyone and at any age. They weigh heavily on an individual and their family. The same goes for movement disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease. But understanding these diseases is quite a challenge, because the brain is a complex organ of the human body, recalls Thomas Durcan, director of the Early Phase Drug Discovery Platform, which was created in 2015. Its objective is to accelerate research work and find therapies. The scientific community thus has access to all the data, thanks to this platform.
This allows stem cells to be harvested from an individual’s skin or blood sample. Using these, Mr. Durcan is developing discovery tests and 3D mini-brain models for neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders. He leads a team of more than 35 researchers and students who are investigating the underlying causes of complex neurological disorders. “The long-term strategy aims to identify new therapies that can enter the clinical trial stage,” he explains. The researcher focuses on Parkinson’s disease as well as drug development for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. “We are learning more about Parkinson’s disease, particularly which cells are affected, but we do not yet know everything. We are trying to understand with the cells what the first stages of the disease are, in order to better understand why this happens,” he emphasizes.
New approaches and fewer ethical issues
The platform uses new approaches at the cutting edge of technology. This is where Élise Faure, co-founder of the start-up of biotechnology eNUVIO Inc. based in Montreal. This manufactures new cell culture devices for neurological research. “We provide the physical laboratory tool to grow neurons, whether in 2D or 3D,” explains M.me Faure. The company has also created a platform for growing mini-brains in three dimensions “with microfluidics and which are compatible with standard robotics in the pharmaceutical industry,” she adds.
Élise Faure reminds us that while neurological models are still largely based on animal models, the objective is to find another way, in particular using in vitro models. “In this way, many ethical issues are removed, because we use stem cells from patients recovered with a simple blood test,” she emphasizes. These new techniques also make it possible to carry out very early phase screening of the drug on a human cell. “To accelerate drug development, it’s very powerful,” she assures.
An expanding platform
Initially, the platform started with a single cell line. It now has nearly 150 cell lines from different people that can be used to create brain cells. The platform has, in this way, designed a patient bank. “So we can ask the cells a lot of different questions,” says Durcan. The protocol in place allows a regular supply of cells from different types of patients, including some who have undergone brain interventions.
In particular, some companies can contact Thomas Durcan to try new technologies through this early-stage drug discovery platform. “The real goal is to make all the data available to try to reduce research time as much as possible,” he says. This platform also constitutes, for the researcher, an opportunity to share and communicate research results. “This allows us to detail the materials and methods used,” he explains. Because with this platform, the researcher also hopes to make science more open and more accessible to the general public.
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