The University Hospital

Hereditary retinal degenerations are a group of severe eye diseases that lead to progressive vision loss and ultimately blindness. To date, virtually all forms of RD are incurable and represent an enormous reduction in quality of life for affected patients.

In up to 30 percent of patients affected by RD, the disease is triggered at the molecular level by an excess of the messenger substance cGMP. Partners of the TargetRD project have already shown in the past that inhibition of cGMP targets can stop the rapid progression of cGMP-dependent RD. The new TargetRD project will now validate cGMP target proteins as targets for new therapeutic developments over the next two years. This is intended to lay the foundation for further therapeutic development of RD that is currently untreatable. In addition, close collaboration with partners from the pharmaceutical industry will ensure that the research results obtained can indirectly benefit RD patients.

The partners of TargetRD 

The project involves the University of Kassel with Prof. Friederich W. Herberg, the University Hospital of Tübingen with Prof. Mathias W. Seeliger and the company Biolog Life Science Institute GmbH & Co. KG (Bremen) with Dr. Frank Schwede. The consortium is led by Prof. François Paquet-Durand, also from the University Hospital Tübingen. For aspects of translational medicine and clinical development, TargetRD is also supported by Dr. Andreas Wenzel from Roche Pharma AG (Basel, Switzerland).

The picture shows the participants of the TargetRD kick-off conference. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this conference was conducted via video chat.

Further information can be found on the website of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF): https://www.gesundheitsforschung-bmbf.de/de/pkg-und-cngc-als-targets-fur-die-mutationsunabhangige-therapie-fur-erbliche-12033.php