By Matthew Willett

Cogent Neuroscience Inc. plans to be a pioneer in the field of neurogenomics, and it hopes that doesn't mean sailing off the edge of the world.

The company disclosed Thursday an agreement with Elan Corp. plc, of Dublin, Ireland, to form a joint development venture dedicated to the discovery and development of therapeutic gene targets for a group of intractable brain disorders called polyglutamine repeat disorders, a class that includes Huntington's disease.

Cogent President and CEO Max Wallace told BioWorld Today that the deal is worth several million dollars, and that Elan will provide research support to the joint venture in addition to making an undisclosed equity investment in privately held Cogent.

He calls the undiscovered territory of neurogenomics "terra incognita." The deal, he said, is a validation for his young company, founded only two years ago.

"Elan has really become a company focused on neuroscience," Wallace said. "One of the areas they've done a lot of work in is on the diagnostics side of Huntington's disease, looking for genes in inherited disorders. The next step, and what this deal does, is take their knowledge in diagnostics in Huntington's and our knowledge of functional genomics in the brain and combine those efforts to make inroads toward treatments."

The joint venture calls for equal ownership of resultant products and intellectual property, he said. It also gives some backing to the fledgling company.

"The Elan deal offers us the chance to drive forward in a mode that takes advantage of our gene platform and our gene-based knowledge of Huntington's, and to drive forward in a much-accelerated fashion toward being a neuropharma company," he said.

Durham, N.C.-based Cogent's hook is in the slice. Wallace said the company's core technology platform's strength is its ability to work with slices of living brain tissue, a better model for screening activities than cells grown in culture.

"Trying to work in cell culture isn't a good model of the end organ," he said. "What we brought out of the labs at Duke [University] was the ability to slice brain better than anyone in the world. We can do brain slicing on an industrial scale and keep those slices alive for weeks or more. We've developed a system that can model certain diseases, and that allows us to find functional genes."

The deal with Elan put some wind in Cogent's sails.

"Our idea is to blithely sail into terra incognita and have confidence that our thinking is right," Wallace said with a chuckle. "Some die quick deaths out there, but we don't think that will be the case." n