Cambridge Biolink

Neuroplasticity and the Prospect of Therapy and Repair

Date: Wednesday, December 1, 2010 4:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Location: British Consulate General, One Broadway 7th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02142

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For this program, we will continue to explore the challenges and promise of translating basic neuroscience into therapies for neurology indications.

Following on from the Cambridge BioLink in March, we will look at how we can enable therapies for a spectrum of neurology indications by better understanding and exploiting neuroplasticity.

Opening speaker Rick Huganir will present research from his lab demonstrating the role of the regulation of neurotransmitter receptor function in synaptic transmission and plasticity, and outline increasing evidence linking receptor regulation to multiple neurological and psychiatric disorders. A better understanding of the mechanisms of receptor regulation can inform novel approaches to disease therapies.

Next, Ken Rhodes will describe how discovery research at Biogen Idec has focused on pathways and mechanisms that can be targeted to repair nervous tissue following nerve injury or neurodegenerative disease. Anti-Lingo-1 is a monoclonal antibody that protects myelin from inflammatory damage and promotes remyelination and recovery of function in animal models. The molecule is being developed as a treatment for multiple sclerosis and is one of the first therapies to enter clinical trials designed to effect plasticity and restore function in patients suffering from neurodegenerative disease.

The final speaker, Michael Lytton, will discuss Biogen Idec’s renewed focus on
neurology, including its partnering and corporate strategy. He will also outline the importance of external partnerships to build on internal capabilities.

Program

Opening Speaker:
Richard L. Huganir, PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Director of the Solomon J. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, The John Hopkins University School of Medicine

Regulation of Neurotransmitter Receptors and Brain Function in Health and Disease

Panel Presenters:
Kenneth J. Rhodes, PhD, Vice President, Discovery Neurobiology, Biogen Idec

Structural Plasticity and Repair following Nerve Injury and Neurodegenerative Disease

Michael Lytton, JD, M.Sc., Executive Vice President, Corporate and Business
Development, Biogen Idec

Evolving a Corporate and Partnering Strategy for a Sustainable Biotech Neurology Franchis

Moderator:
Charles Jennings, PhD, Director Neurotechnology Program, McGovern Institute for
Brain Research at MIT

Organizers:
Pearl Freier, Cambridge BioPartners
Michael Lytton and Dr. Ken Rhodes, Biogen Idec
Dr. Charles Jennings, McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT
Dr. Hilary Glidden, UK Trade & Investment

Sponsored By:

Hosted By:

Richard L. Huganir, Ph.D.
Professor and Director, Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Brain Science Institute
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Dr. Richard Huganir is a Professor and Director of the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Brain Science Institute. He has joint appointments in the Department Biological Chemistry and the Department of Pharmacology. Dr. Huganir completed his undergraduate work in biochemistry at Vassar College in 1975. He received his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology from Cornell University in 1982 where he performed his thesis research in the laboratory of Dr. Efraim Racker. He was a postdoctoral fellow with the Nobel Laureate, Dr. Paul Greengard, at Yale University School of Medicine from 1982-1984. Dr. Huganir then moved to the Rockefeller University where he was an Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology from 1984-1988. Dr. Huganir came to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1988 as an Associate Investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and an Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience. Dr. Huganir became the Director
or the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience in 2006. Dr. Huganir received the Young Investigator Award the Julius Axelrod Award from the Society for Neuroscience, the Santiago Grisolia Award and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Huganir has published over 230 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Huganir’s career has focused on synapses, the connections between nerve cells, in the brain. The function of the brain, our emotions, our intelligence, and our ability to learn and remember all depend on the complexity of these connections between neurons. These intricate connections form neuronal circuits that are constantly modified during life by experience. Dr. Huganir has been interested in the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate the transmission of signals at synapses. Dr. Huganir’s general approach has been to study molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate neurotransmitter receptors. These receptors mediate the response of neurons to neurotransmitters released at synapses and are a central convergence point for transmission of signals between neurons. Modulation of the function of these receptors is a powerful and efficient way to modulate the strength of connections between neurons. Dr. Huganir’s studies have shown that the regulation of receptor function is a major mechanism for the regulation of neuronal connectivity in the brain and is critical for many higher brain processes including learning and memory, fear, pain and the proper development of the brain. Moreover, recent evidence has indicated that disruption of these forms of receptor regulation plays an important role in several neurological and psychiatric disorders of the
brain including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, ALS, bipolar disorder and
schizophrenia, autism, mental retardation as well as chronic pain and drug addiction.

Kenneth J. Rhodes, Ph.D., Vice President, Discovery Neurobiology, Biogen Idec

Ken joined Biogen Idec in May, 2007, after nearly 5 years as a Research Fellow
and CNS Team Leader at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and
Development, LLC. Ken spent 10 years in Neuroscience Discovery Research at Wyeth, where he lead drug discovery activities in acute neurodegenerative disease, ion channels and transcriptional profiling. Ken has lead drug discovery programs in the areas of Alzheimer’s disease, MS, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and stroke, among other CNS disorders. Ken has published approximately 50 original research articles in peer-reviewed journals including Nature, Neuron, PNAS and the Journal of Neuroscience, and has coauthored review articles and book chapters for the Annual Review of Physiology and Journal of Neuroscience, among others. Ken earned his Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology at Boston University, and completed postdoctoral training at the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health.

Michael Lytton, JD, M.Sc., Executive Vice President, Corporate and Business Development, Biogen Idec

Michael Lytton is Biogen Idec’s Executive Vice President, Corporate and Business
Development, and has served in that position since February 2009. From 2001 to 2009, he was a General Partner at Oxford Bioscience Partners, a venture capital firm. From 1993 to 2000, he was Partner, Chairman of the Technology Group and a member of the Executive Committee of the law firm Edwards, Angell, Palmer & Dodge LLP. From 1984 to 1993, Mr. Lytton was a Junior Partner and Co-Chairman of the Biotechnology Practice of the law firm Wilmer Hale.

Charles Jennings, Ph.D., Director Neurotechnology Program, McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT.

Charles Jennings joined the McGovern Institute in 2006, as director of the newly
established McGovern Institute Neurotechnology (MINT) program. The goal of this program is to support collaborations between neuroscientists and researchers from other disciplines within and beyond MIT, with a view to developing new platform technologies for brain research. In addition to the MINT Program, he oversees communications for the McGovern Institute.

Dr. Jennings has a research background in developmental neuroscience. He obtained a PhD from University College London and was a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard and MIT. From 1993 to 2004 he was an editor with the Nature journals, where he founded Nature Neuroscience, one of the leading journals in its field. From 2004-2005 he was the first executive director of Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and he has also worked as a private consultant to academia and industry. From 2006-2008, he served as a member of the advisory committee for the State of Connecticut’s Stem Cell Research Program.

Abstract

Regulation of Neurotransmitter Receptors and Brain Function in Health and Disease

Richard L. Huganir, Department of Neuroscience, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore MD USA

Neurotransmitter receptors mediate signal transduction at synaptic connections between neurons in the brain. We have been studying the molecular mechanisms in the regulation of neurotransmitter receptor function and synaptic transmission in the brain. We have recently focused on AMPA- and NMDA-type glutamate receptors, the major excitatory receptors in the central nervous system. We have examined the modulation of receptor function by protein phosphorylation and the regulation of the subcellular targeting of glutamate receptors to synapses. Studies in our laboratory have found that both AMPA and NMDA receptors are multiply phosphorylated by a variety of protein kinases. Phosphorylation regulates several functional properties of these receptors including ion
channel properties and membrane targeting. We have also identified a variety of proteins that directly interact with glutamate receptors that are critical in the proper subcellular trafficking of these receptors and synaptic plasticity in the brain. These studies indicate that regulation of receptor function is a major mechanism for the regulation of synaptic transmission in the brain and is an important determinant of animal behavior. Importantly, recent evidence has implicated the regulation of glutamate receptor function in several neurological and psychiatric disorders including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, ALS, schizophrenia, autism, mental retardation as well as in chronic pain and drug addiction