 Icelandic Study Provides Leads in the Development of Drugs Against
Schizophrenia (02/19/01)
The pharmaceutical giant Hoffmann-La
Roche now  plan
to, based on a recently finished Icelandic study, develop new drugs
against schizophrenia.
The collaboration with the Icelandic genetechnology company deCODE
genetics started already three years ago, when Hoffmann-La Roche
offered to pay up to 200 million dollars to get access to information
about the Icelanders' DNA. Since then deCODE has found genes related
to around eight different diseases.
The identified schizophrenia gene, which was discovered last year,
 raises
high hopes for developing new potential drugs against the disease.
According to deCODE, the gene codes for a protein, which is suspected
to be involved in the disease. An additional protein that is thought
to interact with the schizophrenia protein is also a possible lead
for development of drugs for treatment of patients with  schizophrenia.
The reason Iceland was chosen for this study is that the Icelandic
population's genome during the past centuries has been found to
be unusually well-conserved and stable, probaly due to low degree
of immigration.
Read the recent articles form Yahoo! - Reuters
- Associated Press:
Icelanders'
DNA Offers Promise (02/14/01)
UPDATE2-Roche,
deCODE make progress on gene-to-drug work (02/14/01)
Roche,
deCODE to begin drug discovery program (02/14/01)
By Ulrika Kahl, Phd
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