BERKELEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The University of California, Berkeley Molecular Therapeutics (MTx) division of the Molecular & Cell Biology department today announced the launch of a new initiative to accelerate drug discovery at the interface of academia and biotech. The UC Berkeley Molecular Therapeutics Initiative (MTI) will create a foundational bridge between fundamental research in rare neurological and metabolic diseases and drug discovery to identify and accelerate novel therapeutic modalities into the clinic.
“Our interdisciplinary teams will include the next generation of scientific minds as we drive innovation at scale through new projects and partnerships”
The MTI’s infrastructure will comprise a collaborative, interdisciplinary community of UC Berkeley labs, external academic institutes, biopharma companies and venture capital partners that empowers rapid, iterative formulation and testing of therapeutic hypotheses. Initial research focus is on the interplay between metabolites and proteins to reveal new biological pathways that can modulate “undruggable” proteins, informing next-generation, induced proximity modalities in areas of significant unmet need such as rare diseases, neurodegeneration and cancer.