{"id":97556,"date":"2025-07-27T20:11:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T20:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/97556\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T20:11:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T20:11:16","slug":"princess-anne-opens-insmeds-new-cambridge-facility-for-rare-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/97556\/","title":{"rendered":"Princess Anne opens Insmed\u2019s new Cambridge facility for rare disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Friday, Anne, Princess Royal from the British royal family,<\/a> attended the opening ceremony of Insmed\u2019s new R&D facility in Cambridge, UK. The 17,000 square foot facility is dedicated to synthetic rescue of rare diseases. Princess Anne was given a tour of the site by Will Lewis, Insmed CEO, who commented that he was \u201cimmensely proud to show The Princess Royal around our research site.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with BioProcess Insider, senior vice president\u00a0of research Tom Heightman\u00a0stated that Insmed chose the Cambridge site to \u201caccess a different ecosystem of thinking\u201d\u00a0and that he anticipated significant collaboration with the University of Cambridge.<\/p>\n

The facility employs 80 scientists and researchers with \u201croom to expand\u201d over time. Heightman said the facility offers a \u201cstate-of-the-art microbiology laboratory.\u201d He added that having a multidisciplinary team work as a cohesive unit contributes to a flourishing research environment.<\/p>\n

He emphasized that this collaborative approach differentiates Insmed\u2019s research into rare diseases from that of its competitors. He said that with its proximity to the University of Cambridge, Insmed\u2019s facility has access to some of the best disease experts in the world.<\/p>\n

The site will emphasize research on the human genetic code explored in two distinct paths: cellular disease models and the mining of human genetic data through both patient and public databases. By \u201cmining natural variations in human genetic data,\u201d Heightman and his team can identify modifier genes that affect the expression (or lack thereof) of genes integral to disease processes.<\/p>\n

Related:Simtra expands to bring commercial ADC drug product manufacturing to US<\/a><\/p>\n

Synthetic rescue<\/a> refers to scenarios in which the loss of one of two essential gene leads to cell death, but the loss of both genes together renders the cell healthy. This parallels the idea of synthetic lethality<\/a>, where the loss of either gene is survivable, but the loss of both is deadly to the cell. Synthetic lethality has been exploited to develop a range of successful<\/a> drugs; Insmed hopes to use synthetic rescue to achieve similar success.<\/p>\n

This push for synthetic rescue follows Insmed’s purchase of Adrestia<\/a>, which was built to find therapeutic applications in genetic relationships.<\/p>\n

Data mining of the human genome \u2013 coupled with cell models genetically altered using CRISPR \u2013 allows accurate modeling and understanding of disease. When we asked him about potential timelines for significant research breakthroughs, Heightman commented that while Insmed has \u201cno strict timelines,\u201d the team at Cambridge \u201chas already had significant breakthroughs in neurogenerative disease.” He added, \u201cThere are over 7,000 rare diseases, and a significant unmet need. Insmed is interested in areas where they can make a real difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related:Biogen bolsters US supply chain with $2bn manufacturing investment<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOur work in synthetic rescue was developed in Cambridge, and the opening of this site marks an exciting new chapter in our relationship,\u201d Heightman said at the opening ceremony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last Friday, Anne, Princess Royal from the British royal family, attended the opening ceremony of Insmed\u2019s new R&D…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":97557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[815,159,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-97556","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-genetics","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114927022001748687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}