NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) — Phylonix Pharmaceuticals has received a Small Business Innovation Research Grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences that it will use to develop its drug-interaction testing technology.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based contract research organization will use the $1.25 million grant to develop in vivo zebrafish assays that will assess drug effects using cytochrome P450 profiling. The company markets and is developing screens to identify drug candidates for cancers, central nervous system disorders, cardiovascular diseases, apoptosis, and organ toxicity.
Because of their genetic and physiological similarity to humans, zebrafish have been shown to be an efficient, predictive animal model for assessing drug metabolism and drug safety, Phylonix said.
"A rapid and robust whole zebrafish CYP assay, amenable to automation in multiwell plate formats, will accelerate drug metabolism and safety profiling and reduce the possibility of costly late-stage drug development failures or product market withdrawal after commercialization," Phylonix CEO Patricia McGrath said in statement.