Proteome Sciences said this week it has received a £530,058 ($848,993) grant from the European Union's Framework Seven program for work on the £6.99 million DENAMIC (Developmental Neurotoxicity Assessment of Mixtures in Children) research project, which aims to develop tools for monitoring the neurotoxic effects of environmental pollutants on the cognitive skills and development of children.
Over the next two years the company will investigate the effects of neurotoxic chemicals on proteins, peptides, and biochemical pathways in cell models and tissue to build a database of protein biomarkers linked to various types of chemical exposure.
It plans to use its tandem mass tagging, or TMT, technology combined with mass spectrometry to develop the biomarker assays.
The grant follows on Proteome Sciences' participation in the EU Framework Six Sens-it-iv research project, for which the company did proteomic work investigating in vitro alternatives to animal tests currently used to assess potential skin and lung allergic reactions (PM 05/15/2008).