Graft Polymer (UK) plc has announced a research agreement between its partner, Awakn Life Sciences Corp., and the University of Nottingham. The agreement covers in vivo research to evaluate the potential of Graft Polymer and Awakn’s aminoindane NCE co-lead series to enhance social cognition and pro-social behaviors.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found two rare, recurrent patterns of mutation in the post-mortem brain tissue of individuals with schizophrenia that could reflect prenatal mutational processes.

Marvel Biosciences Corp. and its wholly owned subsidiary Marvel Biotechnology Inc. have reported promising results from a recent study of MB-204 in the Oprm1 mouse model of autism, showing that just 1 hour after administering a single oral dose of MB-204, the drug successfully reversed the social behavior deficits typically seen in the model.

Booster Therapeutics is ready to open up a new arm of the proteasome after raising $15 million in seed funding to advance small molecules it says can degrade multiple types of harmful proteins. Rather than tagging single disease proteins with a ubiquitin marker for degrading via 26S proteasomes, these compounds directly activate 20S proteasomes that naturally recognize disordered proteins without the need for ubiquitin tagging.

Satellos Bioscience Inc. has developed and presented data for a compound that targeted the process of muscle regeneration based on modulation of satellite stem cell polarity.

To recreate in the laboratory the formation of Lewy bodies as they would occur in a Parkinson’s patient, two ingredients are required: the protein α-synuclein and the participation of the immune system. The results could prevent the development and progression of this neurodegenerative disorder and help in the search for new therapies.