Project Grant R43GM134809

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...

The National Cancer Institute has awarded a $275,627 Project Grant to Link Biosystems Inc., a self-certified small disadvantaged business and for-profit organization, to develop the ONXPANSION bioreactor workflow. This workflow aims to enable efficient expansion of patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells into clinically relevant cell doses to support autologous cell therapy applications. The grant supports efforts to de-risk the utility of Link Biosystems' bioreactor technology for...

Rattan Life Science Inc. received a $275,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084) to develop a platform for generating induced pluripotent stem cell-derived naïve CD4+ and CD8+ T cells with fidelity, reproducibility and scalability. The platform employs proprietary induced thymic epithelial cells to provide biologically relevant thymic positive selection signals during T cell differentiation,...

This Project Grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Biomedical Research and Research Training Program (CFDA 93.859) provides $324,998 to Rejuvenation Technologies Inc. (RTI) to develop highly efficient and well-tolerated lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery vehicles for in vivo mRNA delivery to progenitor cells. The goal is to add progenitor cell targeting capability to RTI's broadly-transfecting BT-LNP formulation, which has demonstrated the ability to...

This Project Grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, provides $914,900 to Ship Of Theseus LLC under the Cardiovascular Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.837). The funding supports preclinical development of a nuclear-targeting biologic to safely increase stem cell expansion in vivo and accelerate recovery from neutropenia following chemotherapy and bone marrow transplant. Specifically, the grant will advance a patented mutant...

This $2.77 million project grant from the Department of Health and Human Services' Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources will support research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to develop new single-molecule tools to characterize the human telomere chromatin landscape. Over three years, the researchers will establish proof-of-concept experiments using non-native DNA methylation to map protein-DNA interactions at repetitive telomeric DNA regions. They will then use these new tools to...

This federal Project Grant award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), under the Cardiovascular Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.837), provides $146,876 to the Coriell Institute for Medical Research to develop new methods for expanding functional hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) from cryopreserved umbilical cord blood (UCB) samples. The project aims to optimize an approach using PPAR-α agonists, which have been shown to significantly expand long-term functional UCB HSCs...

The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), under CFDA 93.350, awarded a $2,149,781 project grant to Rejuvenation Technologies Inc. (RTI) to develop advanced tools and analytics to support the clinical translation of intravenously-infused RNA lipid nanoparticle (LNP) therapeutics. Specifically, the grant will fund RTI's efforts to: 1) develop high-sensitivity drug-specific analytical capabilities, 2) conduct high-sensitivity cell-type-specific biodistribution studies, 3)...

This $225,306 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) supports a collaborative research project between researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) and a German partner to investigate the long-term impact of early-life growth signals on adult hematopoietic (blood) stem cell function and selection. The key products and services to be delivered under this 3-year award include: 1) using stem cell transplantation and...

This Project Grant award from the National Institute on Aging (CFDA 93.866 - Aging Research) provides $448,961 to Telohealthdx LLC to develop a low-cost, accurate, and high-throughput DNA array and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH)-based method to measure the absolute lengths of individual telomeres. The goal is to create an improved diagnostic test for telomere-associated diseases, which are prevalent among the aging population and include conditions like dyskeratosis congenita, aplastic...