HealthPhys.orgNanoscale tech tracks proteins inside living neurons to guide Alzheimer's and Parkinson's drug discovery
A University of Queensland technology that tracks proteins inside living brain cells has been spun out into a Brisbane startup to help develop drugs for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
A technology developed at The University of Queensland allowing scientists to observe how disease-related proteins behave inside living neurons will be used to advance early drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases. The NASTIC (Nanoscale Spatiotemporal Indexing Clustering) platform, spun out into Brisbane-based startup Accretion Bio, enables researchers to study real-time biological processes in living cells across space and time at the single-molecule level for the first time.
A UQ platform called NASTIC, which tracks disease-related proteins inside living neurons in real time, has been commercialised through Brisbane startup Accretion Bio.
The technology, developed over more than two decades at UQ's Queensland Brain Institute, allows researchers to observe single molecules moving inside living brain cells.
The startup's CEO says the platform could help drug developers make better early decisions, potentially reducing the costly late-stage failures common in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's research.
The startup Accretion Bio will work with pharmaceutical partners to apply the NASTIC platform to drug discovery programs for neurodegenerative diseases.
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