Samarbetena handlar mer om att lokalisera gener och olika sjukdomar det handlar om stor mängd data. Andra samarbeten handlar om att ta fram cellinjer för prekliniska försök med mera .
Det enda som jag ser kan direkt handla om delivery är samarbetet med Thermo Fisher som producerar lipofectamine som jag pratade om in inlägget ovan.
Vad PW tycker om lipofectamine vs fimaNac vet vi ju redan 
De olika samarbetena listas under, direkt från AZ:s hemsida.
AstraZeneca’s research collaborations are with the following institutions:
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK
Under the terms of the collaboration with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, research will focus on deleting specific genes relevant to cancer, cardiovascular, metabolic, respiratory, autoimmune & inflammatory diseases and regenerative medicine to understand their precise role in these conditions. AstraZeneca will provide cell lines that can be targeted using the Sanger Institute’s collection of genome-wide CRISPR guide-RNA libraries to generate populations of cells in which defined genes are switched off. Genes will subsequently be identified by next-generation sequencing and cell populations tested to validate the effects of a given gene on a wide range of physical and biological traits.
“The Sanger Institute’s guide-RNA library enables researchers to target genes with incredible specificity,” said Dr. Kosuke Yusa, Member of Faculty at the Sanger Institute. “CRISPR has transformed the way we study the behaviour of cells and now the application of this powerful technology to the search for effective drugs has the potential to benefit patients.”
The Innovative Genomics Initiative, California
The Innovative Genomics Initiative (IGI) is a joint venture between the University of California, Berkeley and University of California, San Francisco. The research collaboration will focus on either inhibiting (CRISPRi) or activating (CRISPRa) genes to understand their role in disease pathology. The IGI and AstraZeneca will work closely together to identify and validate gene targets relevant to cancer, cardiovascular, metabolic, respiratory, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases and regenerative medicine to understand their precise role in these conditions.
“We are excited to pair the IGI’s premier expertise in CRISPR gene editing and regulation with AstraZeneca’s deep experience in therapeutics,” said Jacob Corn, Scientific Director of the Innovative Genomics Initiative. “I’m confident that, working side-by-side with scientists at AstraZeneca, our collaboration will positively impact drug discovery and development to hasten treatments to patients.”
Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, Massachusetts
Under the terms of the collaboration with Thermo Fisher Scientific, a world-leading reagent and instrument provider, AstraZeneca will receive RNA-guide libraries that target individual known human genes and gene families. AstraZeneca can screen these guides against cell lines to identify new disease targets.
“Through this research collaboration with AstraZeneca, Thermo Fisher is helping to accelerate access to cutting edge genome-editing applications for next generation drug discovery. Enabling more relevant disease models will improve target identification and translation to therapeutics,” said Dr. Jon Chesnut, Director of Synthetic Biology R&D at Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Broad Institute/Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts
The collaboration with the Broad Institute and Whitehead Institute will evaluate a genome-wide CRISPR library against a panel of cancer cell lines with a view to identifying new targets for cancer drug discovery.
In addition to the new collaborations, AstraZeneca’s in-house programme is currently adapting CRISPR technology to streamline and accelerate the production of cell lines and translational models that mimic complex genomic and disease-relevant scenarios.
“Application of the CRISPR technology for precise genome editing in recombinant cell lines and in relevant disease models should enable us to identify novel targets, build better test systems for drug discovery and enhance the translatability of our efficacy and safety models,” said Dr. Lorenz Mayr, Vice President, Reagents & Assay Development, AstraZeneca.
The short video above explaining how CRISPR technology works is available in English, Mandarin and Spanish, and a still image illustrating the technology is available.
Download broadcast video and high-resolution image
About The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is one of the world’s leading genome centres. Through its ability to conduct research at scale, it is able to engage in bold and long-term exploratory projects that are designed to influence and empower medical science globally. Institute research findings, generated through its own research programmes and through its leading role in international consortia, are being used to develop new diagnostics and treatments for human disease. http://www.sanger.ac.uk/
About Innovative Genomics Initiative
The Innovative Genomics Initiative (IGI) was established in early 2014 at the Li Ka Shing Center for Genomic Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and is a joint UC Berkeley/UC San Francisco initiative catalyzing and guiding the global effort in both the academic and commercial research communities to unleash the transformative potential of CRISPR/Cas9 technology for positive human impact.
About the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT
The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT was launched in 2004 to empower this generation of creative scientists to transform medicine. The Broad Institute seeks to describe all the molecular components of life and their connections; discover the molecular basis of major human diseases; develop effective new approaches to diagnostics and therapeutics; and disseminate discoveries, tools, methods and data openly to the entire scientific community.
Founded by MIT, Harvard and its affiliated hospitals, and the visionary Los Angeles philanthropists Eli and Edythe L. Broad, the Broad Institute includes faculty, professional staff and students from throughout the MIT and Harvard biomedical research communities and beyond, with collaborations spanning over a hundred private and public institutions in more than 40 countries worldwide. For further information about the Broad Institute, go to http://www.broadinstitute.org.
About Whitehead Institute
Whitehead Institute is a world-renowned non-profit research institution dedicated to improving human health through basic biomedical research. Wholly independent in its governance, finances, and research programs, Whitehead shares a close affiliation with Massachusetts Institute of Technology through its faculty, who hold joint MIT appointments. http://wi.mit.edu
About Thermo Fisher Scientific
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with revenues of $17 billion and 50,000 employees in 50 countries. Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We help our customers accelerate life sciences research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics and increase laboratory productivity. Through our four premier brands – Thermo Scientific, Life Technologies, Fisher Scientific and Unity Lab Services – we offer an unmatched combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and comprehensive support. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com.
Annan länk från 2018:
AZ and CRUK team up to go all-in on CRISPR
George Underwood
December 10, 2018
AstraZeneca and Cancer Research UK are collaborating to launch a centre of excellence in genetic screening, cancer modelling and big data processing that will develop CRISPR technology to better understand the biology of cancer.
The Functional Genomics Centre will help create biological models that may be more reflective of human disease, as well as advancing computational approaches to better analyse big datasets, with the aim of accelerating the discovery of new oncology medicines.
CRISPR is a gene editing technology that can be used to edit the desired parts of the genome, which makes it possible to identify a DNA sequence, remove it, replace it or add it more easily than ever before to result in the deletion or introduction of specific nucleotide changes into any gene.
Though it is still an emerging field, the first therapies utilising CRISPR are already being reviewed by the FDA, including Vertex’s CTX001.
“CRISPR in its broadest intent has become embedded in the majority of our therapeutic programmes in terms of our ability to build better disease models, help us identify better medicines and now increasingly in functional genomics to help us identify the targets that we’re working on in the first instance,” Steve Rees, AZ’s VP discovery biology, IMED Biotech Unit, told pharmaphorum at a media briefing. “The collaboration with CRUK in the Centre for Functional Genomics will allow us to run 150 of these screens each year from 2020 – half of those will be for AZ and half for CRUK – and this will apply to the majority of our oncology projects to help us identify targets in the first instance but also help us identify the resistance mechanisms to our drugs such that we can make improved medicines that address those resistances.
“In a couple of years’ time I expect that every drug candidate we select to go into the clinic somewhere along the way will have been touched by CRISPR, in terms of optimising the model system that it’s tested in.”
Functional genomics aims to understand the complex relationship between genetic changes happening within DNA and how these translate to cellular changes in disease. Knowing the functional genomic drivers of disease enables scientists to more accurately select the right drug targets and increases the probability of success in the clinic, and Mene Pangalos, AZ’s executive vice president, innovative medicines & early development, said that the collaboration is part of the company’s wider strategy to increase the success rate of its programmes.
“None of our programmes go in the clinic now without being able to demonstrate proof of mechanism – that you’re actually engaging the target, engaging the pathway and engaging the science, so you know that if it fails you’ve tested your hypothesis and you’ve learnt something as a consequence.”
Recently the company had two high-profile late-stage failures with its cancer immunotherapy Imfinzi (durvalumab), in phase 3 trials for head and neck cancer and lung cancer.
At the Centre, scientists will have access to the next generation of CRISPR libraries for silencing or activating every gene in the genome, accessed through an extension of the existing collaboration between AstraZeneca and the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
The centre will be housed in the Milner Therapeutics Institute at the University of Cambridge and operationalised through Cancer Research UK’s Therapeutic Discovery Laboratories – the charity’s in-house drug discovery unit focused on establishing drug discovery alliances with industry.
