ViiV Healthcare to collaborate with Dutch university medical center

(Sharecast News) - GlaxoSmithKline owned ViiV Healthcare announced on Tuesday a new five-year collaboration with Radboud university medical center in The Netherlands to identify new drug targets for HIV.The project will provide dedicated funding to enhance the HIV-specific capability of the Human Functional Genomics Projects which combines detailed patient data with cross-omics information, host immune responses and environmental factors to better understand how the body recognizes and defends itself from the disease.The medical center will expand the cohort of infected individuals that are part of the HFGP from 200 to 2000 people. Studying certain patterns in their life with the disease they will attempt to identify early stage drug targets to develop new medicines.Jan van Lunzen, MD PhD, head of translational medical research at ViiV Healthcare and project coordinator said: "This project will enable us to establish one of the best characterized cohorts of people living with HIV in the world and will not only help to better define biomarkers and pathways of disease progression, but may also serve as a fantastic platform to find new drug targets."Mihai Netea, MD PhD, professor and head of the division of experimental internal medicine at Radboud university medical center said: "This is a unique collaboration which will combine for the first time in-depth clinical and pathophysiological phenotyping with a systems biology approach in a large population of patients with HIV. It is a unique chance to understand better the HIV infection and its complications, and to partner with ViiV Healthcare to translate that knowledge to the bed of the patient."