Amnestix is a biopharmaceutical company focused on treatments for nervous system diseases including neurodegenerative diseases, impaired cognitive functions and mood disorders. Neurodegenerative diseases are caused by a loss of neurons of the brain and/or spinal cord. Neurodegeneration may be triggered by stroke, head trauma or spinal cord injury, leading to rapid loss of sensory, motor or cognitive functions. However, it may also result from slow, gradual deterioration of neuronal function and ultimately cell death, as in the case of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (a.k.a. Lou Gehrig’s disease), Huntington’s disease and others. In addition, the neurons’ vital myelin sheath may become impaired, which over time will lead to dysfunction and disabilities in conditions of Multiple Sclerosis or Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Such diseases present a major medical problem and socio-economic burden in the industrialized world. They are most prevalent in elderly patients and there is a growing need for treatment due to demographic developments. Amnestix is working to identify new therapeutic agents, as well as to repurpose existing clinical stage compounds to treat these diseases.
The company’s founders discovered a series of genes and pathways that play a significant role in memory performance in humans while working with scientists at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (http://www.tgen.org) and the University of Zürich (http://www.neuroscience.ethz.ch/). These discoveries were made using a strategy called whole-genome association analysis utilizing the latest sophisticated technologies from the human genome project. The genomes of individuals with and without a certain trait or disorder are scanned at hundreds of thousands of positions in order to identify where “disease-prone” genomes systematically differ from healthy genomes. Whole-genome association analysis conducted in 2006 by Amnestix’ founding scientists, Dietrich Stephan and Matt Huentelman, in collaboration with Andreas Papassotiropoulos, was the first ever to describe scanning the human genetic blueprint at 
Download SCIENCE paper on memory herehigh resolution to identify cognitive differences between humans. Amnestix has identified a series of genes and pathways that are critical for learning and memory, as well as genes, which potentially contribute to or modify the severity of memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease.
Based on these discoveries, Amnestix is building a pipeline of compounds that are cognitive enhancers. Several psychiatric diseases are associated with poor cognitive function. Amnestix’ pathways and compounds are also expected to support the restoration of impaired cognitive functions in patients with schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. Amnestix has since expanded its platform and therapeutic focus to study a variety of nervous system diseases using the same powerful technologies. A fundamental advantage of developing therapeutics based on therapeutic targets derived from genome-wide association studies is that such targets offer the potential to lead to true disease-modifying therapies. In addition, the platform has a built-in feature that treatments can be targeted to patients that carry defined susceptibility gene mutations.
Amnestix’ work has been featured in the popular media:
In June, 2008, Amnestix was acquired by SYGNIS Pharma AG, a German biopharmaceutical company focused on nervous system therapeutics. Amnestix now continues its operation as a wholly owned subsidiary of Sygnis Pharma AG.
