Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

Women's Health Startup NextGen Jane Gets $1.5M NIH Grant for Endometriosis Test Development

NEW YORK — NextGen Jane, a startup using genomic data to develop diagnostics and drugs for female reproductive disorders, said on Tuesday that it has won a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue work on a noninvasive test for endometriosis.

The company is developing a tampon-style device that collects menstrual effluence, which can then be analyzed for endometrial tissue RNA biomarkers of endometriosis. With the two-year Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant, NextGen Jane aims to conduct a 72-person study with a negative or positive surgical confirmation of endometriosis to confirm previously identified biomarkers.

According to the grant's abstract, NextGen Jane will also use RNA sequencing data to examine around 300 pre- and post-laparoscopy matched patient samples to confirm sensitivity and specificity of microRNA and messenger RNA biomarkers in concert with patient survey data.

"To overcome a significant barrier in helping women with endometriosis, it is critical to increase disease awareness through convenient at-home testing," NextGen Jane cofounder and CEO Ridhi Tariyal said in a statement. "This competitive NIH grant helps NextGen Jane take the next steps in developing the big data analytic tools needed to establish the molecular signature of this novel noninvasive diagnostic for patients in obstetrics and gynecological care and for women who want greater control of their own health."

Oakland, California-based NextGen Jane previously received $267,669 in Phase I SBIR grant funding to develop endometriosis biomarkers.

The Scan

Genetic Testing Approach Explores Origins of Blastocyst Aneuploidy

Investigators in AJHG distinguish between aneuploidy events related to meiotic missegregation in haploid cells and those involving post-zygotic mitotic errors and mosaicism.

Study Looks at Parent Uncertainties After Children's Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Diagnoses

A qualitative study in EJHG looks at personal, practical, scientific, and existential uncertainties in parents as their children go through SCID diagnoses, treatment, and post-treatment stages.

Antimicrobial Resistance Study Highlights Key Protein Domains

By screening diverse versions of an outer membrane porin protein in Vibrio cholerae, researchers in PLOS Genetics flagged protein domain regions influencing antimicrobial resistance.

Latent HIV Found in White Blood Cells of Individuals on Long-Term Treatments

Researchers in Nature Microbiology find HIV genetic material in monocyte white blood cells and in macrophages that differentiated from them in individuals on HIV-suppressive treatment.