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The Tau Consortium strives to support best practice programs with a variety of mechanisms that recognize the distinct challenges of drug discovery and translation for neurodegenerative diseases. Through its vital partnerships, the Tau Consortium’s drug discovery portfolio is supported by integrated expertise and services that cover all aspects of the pipeline from early stage target discovery and validation through clinical trials. Our team works to connect investigators with contract research organizations (CROs), intellectual property consultants, and other necessary services to provide support where it is needed.
With an appreciation for the synergy that results from working collaboratively with like-minded organizations to accelerate the development of therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases, the Tau Consortium has partnered with the Alzheimer’s Association and The Michael J. Fox Foundation on several initiatives to leverage funding, expertise and outreach. About one half of our drug discovery and translational portfolio is supported through open application initiatives with these nonprofit partners.
The Tau Consortium funds drug discovery efforts across a wide range of novel targets, agents, and/or therapeutic strategies to accelerate the development of disease modifying interventions for tauopathies. Our pipeline aims to bridge the “valley of death” (the term that scientists use for the time between a basic science discovery and the ability to commit resources to develop that finding into a drug) by cultivating academic labs to grow into more robust translational programs with the ultimate goal of working with pharmaceutical companies to develop their drug candidates for human trials and commercialization.
The funding and discovery strategy is based on the individual needs and stages of the program and can range from assignments of fully integrated drug discovery teams via partnerships and CROs (contract research organizations) and support of drug discovery services via a CRO network with drug discovery and intellectual property strategy advice from experienced consultants. The Rainwater Charitable Foundation stays engaged in supporting and monitoring progress toward proof-of-concept program inflection points where venture financing or other types of funding and pharma partnerships can be realized.
“We encourage our academic investigators to form integrated interdisciplinary teams with scientists from drug discovery institutes and work with drug discovery experts to advance these programs towards clinical development.”
Dr. Leticia Toledo-Sherman Senior Director of Drug Discovery
Phase of Development: Hit to Lead
Mechanism of Action: Tau Synthesis/Expression/RNA Modulation
Compound Type/Modality: Small Molecule
Phase of Development: Hit to Lead
Mechanism of Action: Tau Proteostasis, Propagation and Clearance
Compound Type/Modality: Vaccine
Phase of Development: In Vivo Proof of Concept
Mechanism of Action: Tau Proteostasis, Propagation and Clearance
Compound Type/Modality: Small Molecule
Phase of Development: Target ID / Target Validation
Mechanism of Action: Tau Proteostasis, Propagation and Clearance
Compound Type/Modality: Small Molecule
Phase of Development: Lead Optimization
Mechanism of Action: Tau Phosphorylation and Posttranslational Modifications
Compound Type/Modality: Antibody/Biologic
Phase of Development: HTS / Hit ID
Mechanism of Action: Tau Proteostasis, Propagation and Clearance
Compound Type/Modality: Small Molecule
Phase of Development: In Vivo Proof of Concept
Mechanism of Action: Neuroinflammation
Compound Type/Modality: Small Molecule
In 2018, the Tau Consortium and Alzheimer’s Association came together to create the Tau Pipeline Enabling Program (T-PEP). Now entering its third year, the overarching goal of this matching grant program is to accelerate the development of new therapies for tau-based neurodegenerative disorders. T-PEP aims to enrich the “valley of death” drug development pipeline by facilitating innovative but resource-constrained academic projects to become more robust translational programs that pharmaceutical companies may be able to develop into drug candidates for human trials and commercialization.
In the T-PEP I and T-PEP II grant cycles, the partners awarded nearly $7 million to 13 talented research teams. Typically, these two year programs funded through T-PEP are focused on one or more steps in the drug discovery process from target validation and enablement, lead discovery and optimization, proof of concept in vivo efficacy and/or IND-enabling studies. The program is open to researchers at academic institutions as well as small companies.
As co-funders of the grants, the Alzheimer’s Association and Tau Consortium jointly monitor each program’s progress toward project milestones. Continued disbursement of funds is contingent on demonstrated progress toward key milestones.
To read about the winners from the T-PEP I grant cycle, please click on this link.
To read about the winners from the T-PEP II grant cycle, please click on this link.
For more information please visit the T-PEP website here.
The PIPETTE Consortium (Philanthropic Investments in PET TracErs) is a funding partnership formed in 2017 by The Michael J. Fox Foundation and Tau Consortium. The purpose of this initiative is to encourage the development of novel 4R tau and alpha-synuclein PET tracers for primary non-Alzheimer’s tauopathies, Parkinson’s disease, Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal dementia, and other neurodegenerative diseases. As a collaborative effort of leading nonprofit organizations, the PIPETTE Consortium seeks to pool ideas, expertise, and resources to enable the improved diagnosis and treatment of multiple disorders.
PET imaging tools are crucially important to the field. They allow clinicians not only to detect the presence of abnormal protein build-up in the brains of living patients, but also to pinpoint its location and quantify its abundance. PET imaging is expected to be the most accurate way of diagnosing living patients with PSP and other atypical parkinsonian disorders. Taking multiple scans over time will allow doctors and patients to precisely monitor disease progression and treatment response.
Unfortunately, it typically takes several years and millions of dollars to develop a new PET tracer. For-profit companies have little incentive to invest in these tools, so nonprofits must often step in to fill the void. Given the complexity and expense involved, it makes sense for non-profits to pool their ideas, expertise, and resources to ensure success. PIPETTE funds projects with structure- and ligand-based drug design approaches that use state-of-art computational methods based on the high resolution cryo-EM structures of disease-relevant tau and alpha-synuclein fibrils and existing Structure Activity Relationship (SAR) on known tau PET ligands or alpha-synuclein PET ligands that are in development. In addition, the program supports in vivo imaging of brain neurofilaments of 4R tau and alpha-synuclein pathology that could be useful as biomarkers of the presence of disease and disease progression and as pharmacodynamic tools for drug development for tauopathies or synucleinopathies.
In September 2020, the PIPETTE partners launched a new grant program that is open to academic, non-profit, and for-profit applicants. Pre-proposals for this open RFA are due on October 22, 2020. To learn more, please follow this link.
Philanthropic Investments in PET TracErs (PIPETTE)
For more information please visit the PIPETTE website here.
Effective drug discovery requires the interdisciplinary expertise of medicinal chemists, biologists, ADME/PK specialists and both in vitro and in vivo pharmacologists to deliver clinical candidates that are progressable through to the clinic. An integrated team approach that can mobilize this collective drug discovery expertise is critical to tackle the complex challenges of optimizing leads into successful candidates for clinical development.
The Tau Consortium supports a drug discovery portfolio of early-stage programs with funding, critical drug discovery expertise, and integrated drug discovery support from CROs (contract research organizations) and partner drug discovery institutes. Teams of drug discovery of experts with diverse backgrounds across multiple therapeutic areas (specifically the central nervous system and neurodegenerative diseases) provide consultation, innovation, and proactive problem solving for the Tau Consortium’s investigators. This expert support is able to guide programs from target validation, hit identification, and hit-to-lead into lead optimization. Our goal is to generate strong proof-of-concept, pre-clinical efficacy data in tauopathy models, supported by pharmacokinetics (the movement of drugs through the body), pharmacodynamics (the body’s biological response to the drugs), and target engagement towards advanced preclinical development and beyond. Our collaborators include the following groups:
The Tau Consortium also provides support for outsourcing drug discovery services that include multiple contract research organizations (CROs) accessible via the Science Exchange CRO Marketplace. This partner membership gives access to the TC’s investigators to search more than 2,500 CROs to provide a range of services from early discovery through clinical development. In addition, stand-alone contracts with Charles River Labs and Wuxi extend those services with an extra level of expertise and large array of drug discovery outsourcing services. When necessary, an external consultant can be hired to manage the input and output data or project timeline and costs.
The Tau Consortium recognizes the need to couple the scientific insights and inquiry of the investigators with field expertise in drug discovery, development and clinical trials to advance programs towards the clinic. Our team works with a strong group of consulting companies that have experience working on most aspects and stages of drug discovery from early to late stage development.
Strategic advice about the protection of intellectual property is a crucial part of the support that our drug discovery investigators receive. Our team works closely with intellectual property experts to help craft program-specific strategies that balance the collaborative nature of the consortium work with necessary protection of drug discovery assets to encourage further investment and partnerships with pharmaceutical companies.
The Tau Consortium funds a diverse portfolio of research projects that encourages scientific collaboration to more directly enable academic research, drug discovery and clinical drug development. Our efforts help bridge the translational gap that often exists between academic and industrial research that adds costly delays to therapeutic development. Tau Consortium’s drug discovery portfolio is supported with integrated team expertise and services that cover all aspects of drug discovery and development from early stage target discovery and validation through clinical stages. Our funding assures that general tools, reagents, technologies, assays and platforms developed with Tau Consortium funding can be accessed by any organization or individual needing to accelerate the development of tauopathy therapies. In addition, our funding of natural history studies, clinical patient cohorts, biomarkers and other clinically relevant tools, aims to reduce the barrier to entry into clinical studies for tauopathies.
While participation in the Tau Consortium grant-making programs is by invitation only, we have other funding mechanisms through strategic partnerships and other mechanisms. We would love to learn about your research programs and how we can help enablement. We are happy to answer any questions you have or connect you to additional resources and insights as needed.
Contact our team at drugdiscovery@rainwatercf.org to begin the discussion, or click here to fill out the form.
Thank you for your interest in learning about the Rainwater Foundation’s medical research programs.