Healx Partners with Children’s Tumor Foundation to Advance NF Treatments

Photo: Simone Manso, head of NF strategic partnerships for Healx

Rare Daily Staff

Healx said it is partnering with the Children’s Tumor Foundation to use its AI-discovery and development platform to find new therapies for the rare genetic disorder neurofibromatosis.

Neurofibromatosis (NF) causes tumors to grow on nerves throughout the body and may lead to blindness, deafness, bone abnormalities, disfigurement, learning disabilities, disabling pain and cancer. NF is a rare genetic disorder that affects 1 in 3,000 people worldwide. Currently, no treatments exist for any of the three types of NF (NF1, NF2 and schwannomatosis).

Healx will combine its AI technology and drug discovery expertise with the disease data, networks, and patient insights of CTF to predict and progress novel therapies for NF1.

To lead the collaboration, HealX said it named Simone Manso as head of NF strategic partnerships for the company. Manso also serves as a member of CTF’s board of directors and is the chairman of CTF Europe’s board.

The partnership is the latest in a growing number of collaborative projects between Healx and patient groups worldwide across multiple disease areas including rare cancer, metabolic, and neurological disorders.

“Healx has the tech and pharmacology expertise, along with the ability to quickly move treatments towards patients, whilst CTF brings the strong NF know-how and patient, clinical and academic networks,” said Manso.