TREVENTIS Corporation Scientific Founder, Donald Weaver, MD, Named Sobey Chair in Alzheimer's Disease Research, His Third Endowed Chair
PHILADELPHIA, July 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- TREVENTIS Corporation announced today that the Company's scientific founder, Donald F. Weaver, MD, PhD, was named as the Sobey Chair in Alzheimer's disease research at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. This is the third endowed chair to be held by Dr. Weaver at Dalhousie. This chair has been established as the result of a $2 million donation to the Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation (DMRF) from the Sobey Foundation. It will fund the DMRF Irene MacDonald Sobey Endowed Chair in Curative Approaches to Alzheimer's Disease. The Sobey Foundation is funded by the Sobey family, who operate many diverse companies throughout Canada including chain grocery and drug stores.
Dr. Weaver, a pioneer in the field of computer-aided drug development, is on the trail of an Alzheimer cure. Dr. Weaver's group uses state-of-the-art computer-aided modeling to develop drugs to prevent and/or slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease. When certain proteins in the brain aggregate into clumps or tangles, that process is toxic to the brain, killing brain cells and leading to the symptoms of Alzheimer's dementia. Using computer models, Dr. Weaver is developing drugs that bind to multiple misfolding proteins in the brain, preventing them from aggregating and, thus, halting the brain damage associated with Alzheimer's disease.
The Sobey Chair in Alzheimer's will provide stable annual funding to assist Dr. Weaver and his team in their continued development of lead compounds as potential curative agents for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Weaver assigns these compounds for commercialization to TREVENTIS Corporation, a company that he helped found.
"We congratulate Don on this most prestigious appointment that serves to support his over- 20-year's work to discover a cure for dementias such as Alzheimer's," said Bill McIntosh, Chairman and CEO of TREVENTIS. "The Company is pleased to work toward the ultimate commercialization of his discoveries."
About TREVENTIS Corporation
TREVENTIS is headquartered in Southeastern Pennsylvania and has research operations in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The Company is focused on the discovery and early stage development of disease-modifying small molecule drugs for a variety of dementias including Alzheimer's. In addition to its therapeutic programs, TREVENTIS has a novel approach to the development of diagnostics for early diagnosis and monitoring of treatment effects in Alzheimer's disease.
Contact: L. William McIntosh
TREVENTIS, Chairman and CEO
Phone: 610-488-6081
SOURCE TREVENTIS Corporation
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