Project Grant R41DK125208

This $4,219,969 Cooperative Agreement award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) under the Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs (CFDA 93.279) aims to develop FZ006, a novel oral biotherapeutic to treat chronic visceral pain associated with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). FZ006 is an engineered probiotic yeast (Saccharomyces boulardii) that secretes a neutralizing antibody against tumor necrosis factor-alpha, a key inflammatory mediator implicated in...

This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), provides $300,000 to Biotherapeutics, Inc. to accelerate the development of a novel, oral, first-in-class immunoregulatory therapeutic for the treatment of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI). The key objectives are to: 1) Evaluate the comparative efficacy of the product candidate versus FDA-approved CDI therapeutics in...

This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (CFDA 93.847 - Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases Extramural Research) totaling $673,379 will support the development of a novel synthetic biology-based cellular immunotherapy for treating ulcerative colitis. The primary awardee, Rise Therapeutics LLC, is advancing their lead candidate R-3750, an engineered Lactococcus lactis strain that expresses the anti-inflammatory surface layer protein A...

This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), under the Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases Extramural Research program (CFDA 93.847), is funding the development of a novel class of oral drugs that inhibit the migration of activated T cells to the gut. The $1,078,081 award to Orphagen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. aims to advance a lead antagonist compound, OR-812, that has demonstrated the ability to block the induction of...

This $325,139 federal Project Grant award, funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), 93.350 program, aims to examine the feasibility of using target-specific polyclonal antibodies to neutralize bioactive molecules in the gut microbiome. The primary goals are to 1) determine the impact of six proteins identified as overabundant in inflammatory gut disorders, and 2) evaluate the ability of immunoglobulin Y (IgY) antibodies to neutralize the physiological impacts...

This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), under the Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases Extramural Research program (CFDA 93.847), provides $919,404 to Qrono, Inc. to develop QR401, a first-in-class oral nanomedicine targeting antigen-presenting cells (APCs) for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The goal is to leverage the AMPK pathway to restore immune tolerance and alleviate intestinal...

This federal Project Grant award, provided by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) under the Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases Extramural Research program (CFDA 93.847), aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a proteolytic activity-guided fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) approach for treating irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), particularly the post-infection subset (PI-IBS). The $316,102 award, effective September 1, 2024, will support a...

The U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) awarded a $506,000 Project Grant (CFDA 93.213 - Research and Training in Complementary and Integrative Health) to the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. The goal of this 2-year grant, awarded on September 13, 2024, is to develop orally available recombinant peptidoglycan hydrolase therapeutics that can promote intestinal barrier function and protect against enteric pathogens. The funded research will evaluate...

This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), under the Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases Extramural Research program (CFDA 93.847), provides $1,255,725 to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to advance the development and manufacture of defined live microbial therapeutics for the treatment of infectious and inflammatory diseases. The key objectives of this 4-year project are to: 1) Develop a solid-state fermentation...

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded a $1,200,000 Project Grant (CFDA 93.395 - Cancer Treatment Research) to Covira Surgical, Inc. to develop a first-in-class agent, CS-0003, for preventing chemotherapy-related gastrointestinal (GI) toxicities and lethal infections. CS-0003 is an orally administered, non-antibiotic phosphate-rich mucoadhesive polyethylene glycol that aims to preserve the beneficial gut microbiome while suppressing the proliferation of harmful pathogens. The funding will...