BOULDER, Colo., Aug. 18 /PRNewswire/ — Bolder BioTechnology,
Inc. today announced that it has been awarded a Phase I Small
Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant totaling $600,000 from
the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
of The National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant will be
used to demonstrate the feasibility of using our novel, long-acting
IL-11 analog to accelerate platelet recovery and improve survival
in a mouse model of Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS). Receipt
of the entire grant award is contingent upon the achievement of
certain research milestones.
“Development of radiological/nuclear countermeasures to treat
ARS is a high priority research area for NIAID,” said George (Joe)
Cox, Ph.D., Company President and Principal Investigator for the
grant. “We are delighted to receive a grant award from NIAID
to conduct research with our long-acting IL-11 analog in ARS.”
Bone marrow is one of the most sensitive tissues to radiation
damage and impaired production of blood cells is one of the first
clinical signs of excessive radiation exposure, often resulting in
death. IL-11 is a protein that stimulates bone marrow cells
to divide and differentiate into platelets. Recent studies
indicate that IL-11 can mitigate some of the hematopoietic and
gastrointestinal complications of radiation exposure and improve
survival in animal models of ARS. IL-11 has a short half-life
in humans, which necessitates daily dosing, and may not optimize
therapeutic benefits of the protein for patients. A
long-acting IL-11 analog that does not require frequent dosing
could provide significant treatment advantages in a nuclear
emergency setting.
The NIH SBIR program is a peer-reviewed grant program that
provides research support to small businesses to discover and
develop innovative biomedical products for the treatment of serious
unmet medical needs.
Bolder BioTechnolo
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