UCB announces Harvard University research partnership

UCB Pharmaceuticals has announced it will embark upon a third research collaboration with Harvard University.

Following on from an innovative Research Alliance signed in 2011, the project – entitled Mining the Human Microbiome – will see scientists investigate the human microbiome in the intestine.

Headed by Christophe Benoist, Dennis Kasper and Diane Mathis – professors in the Division of Immunology in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Harvard Medical School – the study will classify new species by testing their impact on the immune system.

This is likely to identify new drugs for the prevention and treatment of immunological diseases.

As part of the collaboration, UCB Pharmaceuticals will provide 4.5 million dollars (2.8 million) over three years to fund the research.

The Harvard investigators said: "We hope this project will fundamentally shift the paradigm of drug development for immunological diseases, exploiting naturally occurring molecules evolutionarily designed to thwart or harness the immune system."