Mission

NV reMYND, a company spinned-out from Leuven University in 2002, has devoted the first years of its existence to develop a technology platform suited for high-throughput drug identification. This platform consists of different high–throughput screens based on yeast cells expressing a known target. The screens exploit intrinsic properties of the human target protein and link these to a straightforward read-out: growth of the yeast culture.

Whereas the platform can be adapted to target virtually every protein-misfolding associated disease (e.g. Huntington, ALS, Creutzfeld-Jacob^nv), reMYND has focused on Alzheimer’s disease (using tau as target) and Parkinson’s disease (using α-synuclein as target. Competition on these highly relevant targets is limited, whereas both are key players in the etiology of respectively Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

The yeast-based approach has been further complemented by model systems based on human cell lines (neuroblastoma) and animal models.

Within three years time we settled a productive drug candidate discovery engine addressing these two major diseases with unmet medical needs, and screened more than 25.000 novel molecules. This resulted in 9 leads, currently under investigation, one of which is already a candidate for entering the development phases.

reMYND’s business development has been fueled by governmental grants and by income acquired through contract research.