Project Grant R44AG043278

This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute on Aging (CFDA 93.866 - Aging Research) provides $2,449,692 to support preclinical studies evaluating the intranasal delivery of VGF-derived peptides TLQP-21 and TLQP-62 for the potential treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The research aims to optimize nose-to-brain delivery, measure regional brain uptake and target engagement, and determine if this intranasal peptide administration can reduce cognitive impairment and neuropathology...

This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute on Aging's Aging Research program (CFDA 93.866) provides $1,434,495.00 to Neuronasal Inc. to develop a novel intranasal (IN) nose-to-brain (N2B) treatment option for Parkinson's disease (PD) using the FDA-approved drug N-acetylcysteine (NAC). The project aims to identify a safe IN N2B dose of NAC with equivalent or better brain bioavailability compared to intravenous (IV) NAC, which has shown dopaminergic improvement in PD patients....

This Cooperative Agreement award from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), under the Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health program (CFDA 93.286), is providing $843,806 to support the development of novel lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for delivering nucleic acid-based therapeutics to the brain. The project aims to synthesize and characterize BBB-crossing LNPs (BLNPs) as functional nanomaterials capable of...

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) awarded a $500,000 project grant (CFDA 93.866 - Aging Research) to Alzarrok Bio LLC to develop a multi-target peptide drug for Alzheimer's disease (AD). The project aims to demonstrate the in vivo efficacy of the ALZ100 peptide, which has shown the ability to inhibit four key mediators of AD pathogenesis: amyloid-beta oligomers/fibrils, RAGE, TLR4, and S100A9. The goal is to show that ALZ100 can inhibit neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in an AD...

This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242) provides $821,998 to the University of Texas at Dallas to research enhancing the non-viral, neuron-specific delivery of molecules across species in the central nervous system. The key objectives are to: 1) further characterize the range of molecules that can be delivered by a novel 15-amino acid peptide called N1, which exhibits strong...

This $949,062 Project Grant award from the National Institute on Aging (CFDA 93.866 Aging Research program) aims to demonstrate the in vitro and in vivo effectiveness of SMC-101 nanotubes (NTs) for delivering drugs across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to treat Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias. The award recipient, Somatoceutics LLC, will optimize the assembly, drug-loading, and BBB transcytosis of SMC-101 NTs in vitro, and evaluate their toxicity and ability to deliver the drug...

The Salk Institute for Biological Studies was awarded a $4,090,484 Project Grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke under the 21st Century Cures Act - Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies program. The grant will support development of a novel quantitative technique to monitor presynaptic release of neuropeptides from terminals in awake, behaving mice. Specifically, the Institute will develop a sensor to detect release of dense-core...

This Project Grant award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the broader Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs (CFDA 93.279), is supporting the development of a novel overdose reversal agent by Serodopa Therapeutics, Inc. The $1,539,426 award aims to complete formulation development and preclinical testing to prepare an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for the company's intranasal naloxone derivative. This novel agent is designed to more effectively reverse...

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) awarded a $350,000 Project Grant under the Biomedical Research and Research Training Program (CFDA 93.859) to Koliber Biosciences Inc. for the development of an artificial intelligence-based platform to optimize peptide lead compounds. The platform aims to address key challenges in peptide drug discovery, such as short half-life and poor oral bioavailability, by leveraging machine learning techniques to model properties like potency,...

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) awarded a 5-year, $653,309 Project Grant (CFDA 93.853 - Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders) to Childrens Hospital Medical Center to develop a novel systemic enzyme delivery system using a brain-targeted SAPC-DOPS nanocarrier for treating neuronopathic Gaucher disease. The goal is to establish proof-of-concept that this SAPC-DOPS-FGCASE therapy can efficiently transport the enzyme into...