KALAMAZOO ? A former Pharmacia spin out, AureoGen Biosciences, a pharmaceutical drugs development company, announced Monday it has received $1.6 million in two grants ? an Advanced Technology Program grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and a Small Business Innovative Research grant from the National Institutes of Health.
The $1.5 million ATP award supports AureoGen?s research and development of methods and tools to enable simple, efficient genetic engineering of organisms that will generate cyclic peptides for use as antifungal, antibacterial and anticancer drugs.
The second, $160,000 award from the Small Business Innovation Research program is a Phase I grant that, upon completion of the research obligations outlined in AureoGen?s proposal, enables the company to apply for Phase II funding worth anywhere from $.5 ? $1.5 million in additional funding.
?Typically, pharmaceutical drugs are developed through synthetic chemistry methods,? Ake Elhammer, CEO of AureoGen said. ?Genetically engineered solutions like those being pursued at AureoGen, have the potential to dramatically change the way drugs are produced and reduce development costs to a fraction of traditional methods.?
?Both of these awards speak to the significant caliber of science and of scientific talent that?s housed at the Southwest Michigan Innovation Center,? said Barry Broome, Southwest Michigan First CEO. ?It is recognition like this that will not only help to fund novel technologies like that being developed at AureoGen, but it further solidifies Kalamazoo?s international reputation for cutting edge scientific discovery.?
The technology platform AureoGen is pursuing has broad applications and can be applied to a number of cyclic peptide producing organisms, thereby providing the pharmaceutical industry with a new, faster and more cost effective solution for developing drugs, Elhammer said. In addition to generating novel drugs, AureoGen?s engineering platform has potential uses for production of vaccines, base chemical reagents, toxins and cosmetics.
?The market for drugs targeted by AureoGen?s engineering platform currently exceeds $40 billion and is growing rapidly,? Elhammer said. ?And the potential for new, genetically engineered drugs is limitless.?
