Project Grant R41GM137710

Simmbion LLC was awarded a $255,136 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Small Business Technology Transfer program to develop a system for manufacturing drug therapies inside the human body. Over the one-year period from April 2022 to March 2023, the company will genetically engineer symbiotic blood organisms to express and secrete two therapeutic proteins - β-glucocerebrosidase to treat Gaucher's disease and insulin for diabetes treatment. In vitro and in vivo testing will...

This National Science Foundation Project Grant of $100,000 supports research into polyelectrolyte multilayered surfaces for use in human mesenchymal stem/stromal cell manufacturing. The goal is to develop a scalable and controllable polymeric coating composed of natural polymers to improve the cell expansion process used in producing therapeutic human mesenchymal stromal cells. The coating is constructed via layer-by-layer assembly of collagen and heparin and has been shown to increase cell...

This $500,000 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, under the Biological Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.074), will support research to develop an end-to-end continuous manufacturing process for cell therapies using robotics and microfluidic technologies. The Georgia Tech Research Corporation will receive funding to create a more integrated workflow based on microfluidic device-enabled genetic engineering, cell expansion, and...

The National Science Foundation awarded Opera Bioscience, Inc. $275,000 under the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084) to develop a low-cost bacterial production platform for manufacturing high purity recombinant proteins and growth factors. The award period runs from June 15, 2023 through May 31, 2024. Opera Bioscience will utilize this funding to demonstrate the ability of its innovative protein production platform to solve challenges in traditionally costly and...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under its Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) program (CFDA 47.084) provides $275,000 to Tectaria Bio LLC to engineer cell lines with activated proteasomes for increased biomanufacturing efficiency. The project aims to test the feasibility and application of a novel technology to significantly increase the protein production capabilities of cell lines used in the manufacture of biologics, gene therapies, and vaccines....

Scarab Genomics LLC received a $937,537 Project Grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859), with performance period from September 15, 2025, through August 31, 2027. The grant funds the development of a continuous microbial fermentation platform utilizing Scarab's proprietary reduced-genome E. coli strains engineered to undergo programmed autolysis for the production and purification of...

This $250,000 National Science Foundation Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships Project Grant supports the development of artificial substrates for growing human stem cells suitable for clinical applications at Oakland University from March 2023 to February 2025. The goal is to accelerate the potential benefits of using human pluripotent stem cells and their derivatives for treating and curing diseases by producing a synthetic substrate that supports growth of human pluripotent stem cells...

This STTR Phase II Cooperative Agreement award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) program provides $1,000,000 in funding to Simmbion LLC to develop and demonstrate the safety and tolerability of a novel "living pharmacy" cellular factory approach for treating diabetes and obesity in cats. The award aims to show how a single injection can effectively control blood glucose and weight gain in companion animals for up to 12...

This $863,697 Project Grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences will support Provenance Group Inc.'s efforts to efficiently synthesize full-length human Type I collagen with appropriate post-translational modifications at high yields. The company will demonstrate that the recombinant collagen resembles its native counterpart and generate highly productive strains expressing full-length human Type I collagen showing appropriate prolyl...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084), provides $275,000 to Mellicell Inc. to develop an industrial-scale technology for drug development using mature human fat cells. The broader impact of this SBIR Phase I project is to enable the discovery and development of next-generation therapeutics for obesity and associated medical conditions that can be treated through weight loss. The award will...