GenKyoTex Launched in Switzerland to Combat Cellular Aging

NEW YORK, April 25 – Switzerland’s role as a global biotech center is strengthened with the launch in Geneva of GenKyoTex to introduce a new approach to the fight against degenerative diseases linked to cellular aging, reports Mario Brossi of the Swiss Foreign Investment Agency Location: Switzerland. The organization combines the work of research groups on three continents (GENeva – KYOto – TEXas), Mr. Brossi said.

GenKyoTex founders are Prof. Karl-Heinz Krause, a researcher at Geneva University Hospitals and the University of Geneva, Prof. Chihiro Yabe of the University of Kyoto, and Prof. Robert Clark of the University of Texas at San Antonio, Mr. Brossi said. Dr. Krause and his colleagues are world-renowned experts in NOX enzymes, the principal cause of superoxidant production. Superoxidants have been widely proven to stimulate the formation of the notorious “free radicals” whose devastating effects in many degenerative diseases, both chronic (Alzheimer’s and others) and acute (notably heart attacks).

According to the announcement made in Geneva, it was long presumed, erroneously, that the production of superoxidants was inevitable. Since 1999, the GenKyoTex architects and other scientists have shown the existence of several NOX enzyme families and the manner in which they form superoxidants in the body. This research now opens the way for a new and completely original therapeutic treatment for these diseases by specifically blocking the superoxidant production source. Bernard Gruson, President of the Geneva University Hospitals Executive Committee, commented that “This development has extraordinary potential from a clinical viewpoint for treating these very serious diseases that are more and more frequent with the aging of the population.”

GenKyoTex was formed with the help of the Geneva biotech incubator Eclosion in collaboration with Unitec, the technology transfer office of the University of Geneva and the Geneva University Hospitals and with added backing from the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation. Other participants included partners from the industrial sector such as Serono and from other academic institutions like the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and Harvard Medical School.

Mr. Brossi noted that more than 250 companies in Switzerland are fully or partly focused on modern biotechnology as defined the European Federation of Biotechnology. “Behind the Swiss biotechnology boom is the excellence in education and public research, combined with efficient technology transfer,” he said. “Highly skilled labor, high productivity, a favorable tax regime, a liberal regulatory environment and a high quality of life make Switzerland a first-rate location for biotechnology companies. This is only enhanced with the formation of GenKyoTex.”

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