Weill Neurohub project gets 1st major corporate partners

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and UC Berkeley last week signed a long-term research partnership with Genentech, and its parent company Roche Holding, to speed the development of new therapeutics for debilitating brain diseases and disorders of the central nervous system, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, ALS and autism.

UCSF and UC Berkeley will receive up to $53 million from Genentech over the course of the 10-year collaboration.

The partnership, dubbed the Alliance for Therapies in Neuroscience, is a milestone for the Weill Neurohub, named after Sonoma Valley resident and philanthropist Sanford I. “Sandy” Weill and his wife, Joan Weill.

The Weill Neurohub was launched in 2019 with gifts from the Weill Family Foundation to focus researchers from different disciplines on disorders of the brain and nervous system, which afflict over 1 billion people and represent the leading cause of disability worldwide.

“Our original vision was that the Weill Neurohub would partner with biotech and pharma companies to drive neuroscience research forward,” said Weill in the partnership announcement. “We are thrilled that Genentech and Roche have agreed to be the first to join us in this unique collaboration, not just through direct funding, but also by dedicating scientific resources and expertise from within their own company on the work that we are doing together.”

Ehud Isacoff, head of UC Berkeley’s Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, a Weill Neurohub partner, said the hope is that the partnership will prove to be a turning point.

“What I am hoping for is that some of these [initiatives] lead to a breakthrough where, eventually, we are looking back a decade or two from now and saying, ‘Holy moly! That is when we turned the corner on neurological disease.’ That's the dream,” said Isacoff.