NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Detroit R&D today announced it has been granted a two-year $1 million Small Business Innovation Research Phase II grant to continue research into protein glycosylation.
The grant from the National Cancer Institute will be used by the company to continue work carried out with a Phase I SBIR grant in 2012 for $300,000, it said. In the Phase I study, Detroit R&D developed glycosylation site-specific antibodies for oncogene proteins and cancer-suppressor proteins, as well as methods for screening anti-cancer drugs. The company developed a microarray-based method for screening glycosylated protein biomarkers in prostate cancer.
With the new funding, the company plans to produce approximately 40 site-specific antibodies for glycosylated receptors and signal transduction pathway proteins. Detroit R&D also plans to elucidate the functions of protein glycosylation in cancer, it said.
The research is anticipated to lead to the development of diagnostics and therapeutics directed at breast, prostate, and pancreatic cancers.
The Phase II study lasts until September 2015.