Nordic Life Science 1
a small private biotech company with approximatel
y 30 employees, located in Aarhus. It was founded in 2015 and originates from more than 15 years of research experience on muscle physiology at Aarhus University. The company’s main focus is to develop treatments for neuromuscular diseases by improving the transmission between muscle and nerves. In their experimental platform NMD focuses on ion channel function and electrophysiology of skeletal muscle. The company develops small molecule inhibitors of skeletal muscle-specific C1C-1 ion channels that have a promising therapeutic potential in a range of neuromuscular diseases, for example myasthenia gravis and sarcopenia. The company is currently running phase II studies on myasthenia gravis patients with their drug candidate NMD670. Anders Findsen, Research Scientist, is primarily responsible for the screening at the company. He determines where in the screening cascade a compound should be tested and what to do next if a compound shows effects in one of the screening steps. “I am also taking part in the screening as I work in the lab, so I am one of the first to have new compounds in my hands and test them,” he describes. Anders workweek usually comprises three days in the lab and two days at the office. When he is in the lab he generally starts the day by preparing the experimental setups together with his colleagues and making buffer solutions for the muscles to be placed in during experiments. They then euthanize the rats and dissect out the muscles for the experiments. “A compound is tested at different concentrations to determine its effect and potency and an EC50 [half maximal effective concentration] curve can be made from one experiment,” he explains. When the experiments are done he analyzes the data and uploads it to the company’s chemists. “Furthermore, there are also reports and papers that are being written during the day,” he adds. At the moment Anders and his colleagues are screening a lot of new compounds, to find backup compounds for their compounds in the clinic. “But we are also working on different animal disease models to be able to determine possible biomarkers and to gain knowledge about whether our compound could have an effect on that specific disease,” he says. During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Anders and his colleagues had to stay at home and could not perform experiments. This was mainly a consequence of having their labs and offices at Aarhus University, and they had to stick to the university’s regulations and guidelines. “During this time we did however begin to set up equipment at INCUBA Skejby Science Park, so we were able to run some experiments, and at the end of the year we made the final move there. We were then able to decide on our own regulations, for example whether we should stay at home or be less people at work. During the second wave we had a chance to maintain function in the labs and make the experiments needed to reach our goals. We did not experience any economic change during these periods, as we were able to maintain some production during the tough times,” says Anders. Anders Findsen NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG 85