Now you have an opportunity to fast-track the discovery of drugs in some neuro-degenerative diseases.
AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical company, proposes a challenge in the area of nucleotide repeat expansion disorders, which includes ALS (Charcot/Gehrig) disease, but also Huntington's disease, etc...
Typically you have to be a startup or an academic with a plan to launch a startup because your solution must be translated into practice within a 12–18-month timeframe.
I am willing to provide reasonable help if you hesitate. This will be mostly in terms of shaping your proposal. I believe that AstraZeneca, like other large companies, is not interested in unproven, hypothetical ideas. On the contrary, IMO they search for people with energy and time (and intellectual right) to give blood to ideas where there is a consensus but where nobody cared to develop it in the pre-clinical stage.
I guess also AstraZeneca would prefer a simple implementation, instead of a complex one. So for example, a small molecule proposal would be preferred to a genetic therapy. A compound of two or three existing drugs to an untested drug. You get the idea.
Good luck!
Jean-Pierre Le Rouzic You will find the link to email me at the bottom of this page.