Cystic lungs provided by NDRI lead to drug discovery in CF treatment.
NDRI’S PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CYSTIC FIBROSIS (CF) FOUNDATION HAS ADVANCED RESEARCH on two promising new drugs that target the basic defect underlying this disorder. Early results could signal a big leap forward toward a healthier future for patients with CF.
In the fight against cystic fibrosis, NDRI was able to design systems to target and retrieve cystic lungs when a lung transplant is performed on a CF patient, which are then provided to top CF scientists for research studies. The result of this collaboration of NDRI with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has been a major medical breakthrough. Cystic fibrosis donor lungs recovered by NDRI for research at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a global biotechnology company, were used to develop the two new drugs designed to combat the disease at its biological root. Because effective animal models of cystic fibrosis are not available, the Vertex scientists were dependent on NDRI to provide CF lung tissue for their work on innovative and promising new drugs to treat the symptoms as well as the causes of CF. Normal, donated lung tissue, which NDRI can provide from it’s national networks, are in demand by CF researchers conducting studies to assess how the lung cells of CF patients operate differently from normal lungs.
Read more on this story at NDRI’s website.
