Materia Announces Phase II STTR Funding From NIH For Development Of Advanced Reagent Systems For Drug Discovery

Main Category: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Also Included In: Clinical Trials / Drug Trials
Article Date: 23 Apr 2009 - 0:00 PDT

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Materia, Inc. announced today the receipt of Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) funding from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS; a component of the NIH) for the further development of a family of advanced reagents for drug discovery.

The program, a collaborative effort between Materia and Professor Paul R. Hanson of the University of Kansas, uses Materia's proprietary Ring Opening Metathesis Polymerization (ROMP) catalysts to generate high-load polymeric reagents/scavengers with tunable properties for application in high-throughput chemistry and parallel synthesis. Pharmaceutical researchers heavily use immobilized reagents to facilitate lead generation and lead optimization. The tunable properties of the new reagents enable significantly improved efficiencies regarding lower mass loadings, higher reaction kinetics, and more desirable solubility profiles while retaining the desirable handling and separation characteristics of traditional solid-phase reagents.

"The Phase I results in conjunction with development work within the University of Kansas Chemical Methodologies and Library Development Center (KU-CMLD) quite convincingly demonstrated the efficiency and versatility of the ROMP technology for the synthesis of these highly functional systems," stated Dr. Mark S. Trimmer, Materia's Vice President of R&D. "It is exciting that the NIH recognizes the importance of this work and promotes programs such as the STTR to foster the teaming of small high-tech companies with prestigious academic institutions such as KU to develop commercial solutions to important technical problems." Professor Paul R. Hanson of the University of Kansas adds, "This grant will enable production of these reagent tools and distribution to the wider academic and pharmaceutical community. In collaboration with the KU-CMLD Center, we hope to advance these reagents further into new and exciting areas of synthesis and drug discovery."

Source
Materia, Inc.

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