NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Small businesses seeking to develop new small molecule probes for use in studying biological function in the nervous system may apply for two new National Institutes of Health grants of up to $150,000 per year.
Under the programs, the Small Business Innovation Research grants and the Small Business Technology Transfer grants will support small business concerns that aim to develop a small molecule probe that could be used in future pharmacological studies by the company.
These grants could fund a range of endeavors including molecular targets expressed in the nervous system and measured via biochemical or cell-based assays of activity or cellular signaling or biosynthetic pathway activation; gene expression in the nervous system including effects on transcription, translation, or RNA splicing; protein-protein interactions that are important to neural or glial cell signaling; nervous system function modeled in organisms such as yeast, Drosophila, C. elegans, and zebrafish; cellular or molecular phenotypes relevant to nervous system function; and potential therapeutic targets that could include those associated with neurological disorders, aging disorders, alcohol and substance abuse disorders, and eye disorders involving nervous system impairment.
These small businesses may nominate small molecule probe candidates from distinct structural series and use in vitro assays of biological function, and they should have the goal of developing a small molecule probe with the necessary attributes for use in pharmacological studies.