Emtech Bio: History of Grant Awards

S E E D G R A N T H I S T O R Y

The first Emtech Bio grants were funded in 2001. These are the proposals that have won funding in this program since then:

New anti-Inflammatory Agents
- Sheldon May

Goal: To develop the commercial potential of a new class of anti-inflammatory drugs.

Encapsulation of a small molecule p38 inhibitor within polyketal particles for myocardial delivery.
- Michael Davis

Goal: To use polyketal particles to encapsulate a specific p38 inhibitor for prevention of initial cell death following cardiac infarction, and to lay the groundwork for larger animal studies.

Tumor Targeting Multi-functional Magnetic Nanoparticles
- Hui Mao

Goal: To develop tumor-targeting nanoparticles to enhance diagnostic imaging and/or delivery of therapeutic agents.

Development of drugs that enhance axonal transport and local translation for treatment of Spinal Muscular Atrophy
- Gary Bassell

Goal: To identify drugs for the treatment of spinal muscualar atrophy.

Enhanced Macrophage Expression of Angiotensin Converting Enzyme in the Treatment of Melanoma
- Kenneth E. Bernstein

Goal: To develop a technology that has potential to enhance natural immunity and control malignancy that is complementary to standard chemotherapy for melanoma.

Utilizing Template-Directed Synthesis To Develop Novel Therapeutics: The "ATAK" Technology Platform
- David Lynn & Stephan Lutz

Goal: To Synthesize and demonstrate efficient cellular uptake and recognition of an amine nucleoside polymer using patented template-directed synthesis technology.

Pre-clinical Development of a new class of HIF inhibitors for cancer treatment
- Erwin Van Meir

Goal: To perform pre-clinical characterization of a series of HIF inhibitors and provide the basis for future translational development.

Development of small molecule drug against CXCR4 for the inhibition of cancer metastasis
- Hyun Suk Shim

Goal: To provide preclinical data for a novel treatment modality to prevent the metastatic potential of tumors that use CXCR4/SDF-1 as a key mechanism in metastatic processes.

Development of calpain inhibitors for treatment of peripheral neuropathy
- Jonathan Glass, James C. Powers

Goal: To commercialize calpain inhibitors for the treatment of peripheral neuropathy.

TransThermal drug delivery
- Mark Prausnitz, Mark Allen

Goal: To design fabricate and validate "TransThermal" micro devices to increase skin permeability by highly localized thermal ablation using a novel wireless approach.

Delivery of Alpha-1 antitrypsin Transgene as Potential Treatment for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
- Mauricio Rojas, M.D.

Goal: To test the anti-proteolytic potency anti-inflammatory effects and efficacy in preventing and reversing emphysema by expressing a transgene encoding human alpha-1 antitrypsin.

Development of an Aerosol Delivery System for Lipoplex-Based Gene Therapy
– Kenneth Brigham, M.D.

Goal: optimization of formulations of Alphagen and Coxagen for aerosol delivery prior to pre-clinical and clinical testing.

Enhancing the Immunogenicity of HIV Vaccines
– Mark B. Feinberg, Ph.D.

Goal: creating a safe AIDS vaccine through the development of novel Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA)-based vaccine vectors that possess an enhanced ability to generate immune responses against HIV antigens.

Prevention and Reversal of DNA Damage-Induced Degenerative Process in Mammalian Cells
– Paul W. Doetsch, Ph.D.

Goal: generation of agents for use in cosmeceutical preparations or drugs to prevent, reverse or retard biological consequences of cell damage due to exposure to ultraviolet light or oxidative agents.

pH Dependent Neuroprotective Drugs for the Treatment of Stroke and Brain Trauma
– Stephen Traynelis, Ph.D. and Raymond Dingledine, Ph.D.

Goal: to commercialize pH-sensitive small molecules as drugs useful in stroke, brain & spinal cord injury, epilepsy, chronic pain, etc.

Transplantation of Insulin-Producing Hepatocytes for the Treatment of Insulin-Dependant Diabetes
– Peter Thule, M.D. and Athanassios Sambanis, Ph.D.

Goal: To develop an encapsulation system that maintains hepatocytes having a glucose-responsive insulin transgene for testing in STZ-diabetic rats as a first step in developing necessary technologies for hepatic gene therapy for Insulin-Dependant Diabetes.

Development of drug therapies for pathogenic E.Coli and pox viruses - - Daniel Kalman and Melanie Sherman

Goal: To test in vivo the efficacy of previously developed compounds to block infections caused by pathogenic E. coli and Pox viruses.

Cancer chemoprevention and chemotherapy by sphingolipid-based pharmaceuticals - Alfred Merrill

Goal: To expand the types of human cancer cells that are known to respond to a family of sphingolipid-based anti-cancer leads, with the goal of accelerating their progress into clinical trials and commercial development.

Intravascular catheter For Selective Delivery of Therapeutics To Vascular Territories - Jakob-Vinten Johansen

Goal: To test the efficacy of drug delivery in the arterial segments within the balloon interspace of a double balloon-type intravascular catheter, and the ability to perfuse the distal tissue to avoid ischemia.

Plastic Microcantilevers for Bio-sensing - Lawrence A. Bottomley and Jonathan S. Colton

Goal: To develop a plastic microcantilever platform technology for sensitive, specific, quantitative, multiplexed, and label-free detection of proteins present in complex mixtures.