Ixico extends commitment to Dementias Platform UK

Data analytics company Ixico has extended its commitment to Dementias Platform UK (DPUK), it announced on Wednesday, as it entered its second phase.

The AIM-traded firm said DPUK was a collaboration of “scientific minds” and global leaders in the pharmaceutical industry to find new ways of detecting, treating and preventing dementia.

It said the platform aimed to foster collaborations between academic centres of excellence and industry experts, to support research in three workstreams.

Those three work streams were an expanded and enhanced data portal to give researchers “secure and rapid access” to millions of health research records; the development of a trials delivery framework to match public volunteers to the right dementia studies; and an experimental medicine incubator to accelerate and de-risk the development of new treatments.

Ixico said it would be an industry member and stakeholder in the DPUK partner forum, working alongside 13 academic partners with expertise in dementia and big data research including the University of Oxford, Cardiff University, the University of Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh, as well as pharma companies active in dementia research including AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen Pharmaceutica and Araclon Biotech.

“It's exciting to continue our engagement in Dementias Platform UK,” said chief scientific officer Robin Wolz.

“As part of the second phase, we are specifically planning to engage in the development of an efficient trials delivery framework.”

Dr Wolz said applying artificial intelligence (AI) technology for the measurement of brain volumes from MRI for the characterisation and stratification of pre-clinical and early clinical dementia populations would support the development of a trials delivery framework, based on the concept of precision recruitment.

“Implementing a precision medicine approach for patient selection in those highly heterogeneous and challenging populations is expected to be a key enabler to further extend recent successes in the development of treatment in this area of high unmet need.”

At 1539 GMT, shares in Ixico were down 3.24% at 49.4p.