Cooperative Agreement U44TR004811

This federal Project Grant award from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (CFDA 93.350) will support a $450,836 research project at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) to develop and validate a Computational Motor Objective Rater (CMOR) system for quantifying motor symptoms in patients with blepharospasm, a form of focal dystonia. The key objectives are to: 1) Evaluate the CMOR system's convergent validity with patient-reported severity of facial spasms and...

This $500,000 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program aims to develop a novel human stem cell-based microfluidic developmental toxicology platform. The University of Michigan will receive funding from September 2022 to August 2024 to conduct technological development of a repeatable, controllable, high-throughput microfluidic system for generating three-dimensional multicellular organoid models for toxicity testing. The platform seeks...

Venomyx Therapeutics, Inc. was awarded $767,607 under the Biomedical Research and Research Training federal grant program (CFDA 93.859) by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to develop low-cost, thermostable nanobodies against snake venom from September 15, 2021 to September 14, 2022. In collaboration with researchers at the University of California, San Diego, Venomyx will utilize a platform for discovering synthetically evolved nanobodies to generate oligoclonal mixtures of...

Federal Grant Award Summary Quiver Bioscience Inc. received a $862,420 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) under the Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders (CFDA 93.853) program, effective May 20, 2025, with completion targeted for April 30, 2028. The award supports the development of an integrated platform combining machine learning (ML)-based antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) design tools with in vitro...

This five-year, $649,659 National Science Foundation Engineering Project Grant will support research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to advance fundamental understanding of the tissues that produce voluntary movement in humans and other biological creatures. Specifically, the grant will fund experiments studying how mechanical signaling coordinates assembly, maturation and repair at the neuromuscular interface in both physiological and pathological states. The principal investigator...

Vulintus, Inc. was awarded a $1,025,456 Project Grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke within the Department of Health and Human Services to develop the SensiTrak system. The grant was funded under the 21st Century Cures Act Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies program. Under this award, Vulintus will create an automated, high-throughput behavioral testing platform to precisely measure somatosensory function in rodent models. Current...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems awarded a $399,146 Project Grant to the Regents of the University of Michigan under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) to develop a bioreactor system for conducting research on the effects of microgravity and aging on neuromuscular function. The objectives are to evaluate force generation and reactive oxygen species production in tissue-engineered human nerve-muscle constructs,...

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a $1,385,000 Project Grant under the Trans-NIH Research Support program (CFDA 93.310) to the Allen Institute, a non-profit research organization, to develop novel techniques for measuring the input-output operations of individual neurons in the mouse cortex. The project aims to overcome challenges in understanding how neurons in the mammalian brain transform their synaptic inputs into outputs, which is critical for designing effective brain-machine...

Federal Cooperative Agreement Summary The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke awarded a $1.365M Cooperative Agreement to Massachusetts General Hospital under the Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs (CFDA 93.279) for the project "Continuous Monitoring of Pain Using Facial Expressions in ICU Environment" (COMPANION). Awarded on August 1, 2025, with a completion date of July 31, 2027, this phased initiative develops AutoBPS, a facial-expression-based machine...

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) awarded a $450,313 Project Grant (CFDA 93.853 - Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders) to The Johns Hopkins University to develop high-throughput screening (HTS) assays to identify activators of the nemo-like kinase (NLK) protein. The goal is to find small molecule compounds that can lower mutant huntingtin (mHTT) protein levels as a potential therapeutic approach for Huntington's...