{"id":343,"date":"2016-02-11T23:52:49","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T23:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alectos.com\/content\/?p=343"},"modified":"2016-02-11T23:52:49","modified_gmt":"2016-02-11T23:52:49","slug":"alectos-nserc-bennet-sfu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alectos.com\/alectos-content\/index.php\/2016\/02\/11\/alectos-nserc-bennet-sfu\/","title":{"rendered":"Alectos Supports NSERC Funding for Prof. A.J. Bennet at SFU"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Feb 11, 2016<\/strong> \u2013 Alectos today announced its support for NSERC funding for the group of Prof. A.J. Bennet at Simon Fraser University, Department of Chemistry, in a project titled \u201cFundamental Studies on the Biochemical Mechanism of Chemical Chaperoning of Glucocerebrosidase\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Parkinson&#8217;s disease is a worldwide health problem that has been linked to deficiencies in an enzyme called<br \/>\nglucocerebrosidase (GCase). This enzyme plays a critical role in the body by breaking down a particular large molecule<br \/>\ninto two smaller, more easily metabolized components, a sugar (glucose) and a fat (ceramide). Without a<br \/>\nproperly functioning glucocerebrosidase, these large molecules are not degraded in a normal manner. Genetic<br \/>\nmutations associated with glucocerebrosidase often result in an unstable enzyme structure that is easily<br \/>\ndamaged in the intracellular environment. In the case of Parkinson&#8217;s disease, loss of function of this enzyme<br \/>\nmay contribute to disease progression.<\/p>\n<p>Current treatments for Parkinson&#8217;s disease address disease symptoms but do not affect disease progression.<br \/>\nNew disease-modifying therapies are therefore urgently required. The collaboration between Alectos<br \/>\nTherapeutics and the Bennet group at Simon Fraser University will address basic scientific questions around<br \/>\nthe finely tuned activities that enable this important enzyme to function properly. The project will be guided by<br \/>\nthe Bennet group&#8217;s ingenuity in the area of enzyme biochemistry and will provide unique opportunities for<br \/>\nthese university researchers to work alongside industry scientists at Alectos Therapeutics. Anticipated scientific<br \/>\nadvances made by this university &#8211; industry partnership include the design of small molecules that strengthen<br \/>\nthe enzyme&#8217;s structure, helping to increase its robustness and hence its ability to function properly. Not only<br \/>\nwill this work broaden our understanding of the molecular details inherent in enzyme function, but this<br \/>\nknowledge will also drive the downstream design of new strategies to prevent and treat Parkinson&#8217;s disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Feb 11, 2016 \u2013 Alectos today announced its support for  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[52,48,31,45,20],"class_list":["post-343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-bennet","tag-gcase","tag-nserc","tag-parkinsons","tag-sfu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alectos.com\/alectos-content\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alectos.com\/alectos-content\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alectos.com\/alectos-content\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alectos.com\/alectos-content\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alectos.com\/alectos-content\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alectos.com\/alectos-content\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alectos.com\/alectos-content\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alectos.com\/alectos-content\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alectos.com\/alectos-content\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}