Valo to leverage human causal biology expertise to uncover new insights about NOD2 as a potential Parkinson’s disease drug target
Valo Health, Inc. (“Valo”), a company using human data and AI to rapidly discover and develop new medicines, today announced that it has been awarded a research grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) as part of its Targets to Therapies Initiative, which aims to expand the number of promising druggable biological targets in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Valo was selected for its expertise in leveraging robust human data sets and advanced AI-enabled analytical tools to understand the underlying causes of disease and prioritize targets for new medicines.
Valo will be part of a consortium aimed at advancing our understanding of nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain containing 2 (NOD2), which was recently found to be associated with increased risk of PD.1 Leveraging genetics, multi-omics, and network biology analytics, focusing on both central nervous system and immune cells, Valo will clarify the causal relationships between NOD2 and related pathways at the intersection of PD and autoimmune diseases, to identify optimal strategies for NOD2 modulation to meaningfully impact the progression and severity of this disease.
“The Michael J. Fox Foundation’s single, urgent goal remains to find better therapies and a cure for people and families with Parkinson’s. Expanding the number of well-characterized, druggable targets is a critical part of the puzzle,” said Shalini Padmanabhan, PhD, senior vice president and head translational research at MJFF. “We are encouraged by the field-wide collaboration and open-science approach to target validation in Parkinson’s disease, including through Valo Health’s participation in studying key gaps related to NOD2 as a therapeutic target option to slow down disease progression.”
Valo’s novel approach to drug discovery begins with real world data and human preclinical models to start with a better understanding of the causal biology in human disease. The company has unique access to complete, real-world outcomes for more than 17 million patients, some with genomic data and patient histories spanning more than 20 years. Valo partners with researchers across the drug discovery ecosystem to extract knowledge from this extensive data set, understand the mechanisms of disease, prioritize targets for new medicines and rapidly develop new small molecules.
“This collaboration with the Michael J. Fox Foundation is an exciting opportunity to deepen our collective understanding of Parkinson’s disease,” said Brian Alexander, MD, MPH, CEO at Valo Health. “Valo’s expertise in human causal biology using human genetics and real-world data allows us to unravel the heterogeneity and complexity of human disease, leading to a better understanding of targets for therapeutic exploration, like NOD2 in Parkinson’s. We believe this approach – maximizing learning from patients early in the discovery process – will ultimately change how we develop new medicines.”
