NGSP offers innovators from selected world-class institutions funding for breakthrough scientific projects, addressing major bottlenecks in different areas of medicine and whose resolution would positively impact patients worldwide. Through this program, Novartis Biomedical Research supports projects focused on novel science with the objective of being translated to drug discovery and/or clinical research. Academic scholars have access to disease biology, drug-hunting and translational research expertise and each selected scholar will join forces with other entrepreneurially motivated Novartis Biomedical Research scientists to challenge the status quo and take bold risks for potential big rewards. They will also have an opportunity to advance research into early development stages.
Combining complementary expertise in molecular mechanisms of disease and synthetic biology and nucleic acid delivery, team lead and NGSP Scholar, Carlo Rinaldi, and NGSP Co-Investigator, Antonio García-Guerra, will use the award to develop an innovative cell and tissue-specific gene editing approach in preclinical models of neuromuscular diseases.
In a joint statement, Carlo and Antonio commented: “We are incredibly grateful to Novartis for this award. This type of research can have an enormous positive impact, and is only made possible through the unique combination of the University of Oxford ecosystem, Novartis translational research expertise and the ingenuity of the scientists involved.”