Goldfinch Bio and NEPTUNE Announce Collaboration to Discover New Treatments for Patients with Kidney Disease

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and ANN ARBOR, Mich., Oct. 3, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Goldfinch Bio, a company singularly focused on discovering and developing precision therapies to treat patients with kidney disease, today announced a collaboration with NEPTUNE, a leading worldwide network of academic medical centers and patient organizations dedicated to advancing the understanding and treatment of kidney disorders. Goldfinch and NEPTUNE will generate and analyze genomic and transcriptomic data on over 1,000 samples from NEPTUNE's well-characterized cohort of patients with proteinuric kidney disorders, and pair the data with clinical records to gain new insights into the genetic underpinnings of kidney disease. The datasets will be made publicly available via National Institutes of Health (NIH) data sharing resources to be used by the research community at large.

Kidney disease has emerged as a global epidemic that affects over 25 million people in the US and one in nine people worldwide. Despite the introduction of kidney transplantation and dialysis over half a century ago, the standard of care for patients with kidney disease remains inadequate, and there is an urgent need for new treatment options.

Goldfinch Bio is leading a new age of therapeutic discovery and development in the kidney space, and is building the world's largest genomic registry of patients with kidney disease to inform new disease targets, pathways, and biomarkers for the discovery and development of novel therapies. The patient registry is a key component of the company's integrated product engine, which will drive breakthroughs in genetics and biology to bring precision medicines to patients with kidney disease.

"We are delighted to partner with NEPTUNE and establish Goldfinch's federated patient registry as we pioneer new treatments for kidney disease," stated Abbie Celniker, Ph.D., Goldfinch's interim chief executive officer. "Generation of these rich genomic and transcriptomic datasets, through our collaboration with NEPTUNE, will enable us to elucidate new disease mechanisms, therapeutic targets, and biomarkers of kidney disease progression, with a shared goal of delivering new medicines to patients."

"This collaboration represents a significant step forward for the nephrology community, as we now have a unique opportunity to generate and act on new insights to discover and develop new treatment options for patients," said Dr. Matthias Kretzler of NEPTUNE. "We are delighted to work with Goldfinch to expand our knowledge of patients with nephrotic syndrome for the renal research community, and look forward to our partnership and shared commitment to bring precision medicines to patients with kidney disease."

About NEPTUNE
The Nephrotic Syndrome Study Network (NEPTUNE) is a collaborative investigational infrastructure of 23 academic centers across North America. NEPTUNE is a member of the Rare Disease Clinical Research Network (RDCRN) in the Office of Rare Diseases (ORD) and funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH). NEPTUNE is conducting clinical and translational research on rare kidney diseases presenting as Nephrotic Syndrome (NS). Now in its 9th year, NEPTUNE continues to recruit and follow and analyze two cohorts: 1) adults and children with NS recruited at the time of first biopsy; and 2) children with NS recruited at first presentation before diagnostic kidney biopsy. NEPTUNE supports a robust ancillary studies program that provides high-resolution clinical phenotypes of patients matched with genome wide analyses that can molecularly define disease categories, outcome predictors and therapeutic targets. Studies integrating these diverse data towards a more comprehensive, mechanistic definition of NS link genetic, gene expression, histology, and clinical outcome data. The molecular diseased definitions are used to identify and test novel therapeutic approaches in NS.

About Goldfinch Bio
Goldfinch Bio is a biotechnology company that is singularly focused on discovering and developing precision therapies for patients with kidney disease. Just as the goldfinch has long been a symbol of healing and renewal and was a prominent figure of the Renaissance, Goldfinch Bio is leading a new age of therapeutic discovery to transform the treatment paradigm for patients with kidney disease. Goldfinch was launched in 2016 by Third Rock Ventures, and is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. For more information, please visit www.goldfinchbio.com.

Goldfinch Bio Contact
Jennifer Williams
Cook Williams Communications, Inc.
[email protected]
360-668-3701

NEPTUNE Contact
NEPTUNE Data Analysis and Coordinating Center
[email protected]
734-615-5020

SOURCE Goldfinch Bio