Verge Genomics joins the Neurofilament Light Surveillance Project to Accelerate New Approaches to Diagnosing and Treating Frontotemporal Dementia

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Verge Genomics, a drug discovery company developing therapies for neurological diseases by integrating a unique all-inhuman genomic platform with machine learning, announced today that it has joined the Neurofilament Light Surveillance Project (NSP), a consortium sponsored by the Bluefield Project to Cure FTD that brings together leading academic institutions, nonprofit foundations, and pharmaceutical and biotech companies to identify new approaches to diagnosing and treating frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The NSP study is an ancillary study of ALLFTD, a multisite observational research project aimed at preparing for clinical treatment trials in FTD. Coordinating research efforts to fund and share results through the NSP project will greatly accelerate the understanding of the mechanism of this disease and the development of new targets and approaches to treatment.

"Frontotemporal dementia is a rare but fatal adult-onset neurodegenerative disease where symptoms typically begin in middle-age and death usually occurs within 10 years after symptom onset. Joining the NSP is part of Verge's steadfast commitment to developing treatments for patients with complex neurodegenerative diseases," said Jane Rhodes, Ph.D., M.B.A. "Through this consortium, Verge will have access to data to aid biomarker development for monitoring and detecting disease progression, as well as providing data to advance clinical study design that will accelerate our ability to identify and develop potential new treatments for this devastating disease."

The NSP (https://www.allftd.org/nsp) is a prospective, longitudinal, observational study that will collect blood samples from hundreds of participants over the course of three years. The study will help researchers to determine if plasma neurofilament light (NfL) may be used as a prognostic biomarker to select individuals with familial mutations at a high risk of converting to symptomatic disease within two years.

FTD encompasses a group of devastating neurodegenerative conditions that occur in people in their 50s or 60s and are characterized by dying neurons and the abnormal accumulation of proteins. Verge has active research and development programs aiming to find novel therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, including FTD.

About Verge Genomics

Verge is focused on developing therapeutics for neurological diseases using human genomics to accelerate drug discovery. Verge has created a proprietary all-in-human platform, generating one of the field's largest and most comprehensive databases of ALS, FTD and Parkinson's Disease patient genomic data. The Company is led by experienced computational biologists and drug developers who are successfully advancing therapeutic programs in ALS and Parkinson's disease toward the clinic. For additional information, please visit http://www.vergegenomics.com.

SOURCE Verge Genomics