A Medical Device Daily

The University of Michigan Depression Center (Ann Arbor) reported that donors are poised to give it $1.5 million to fund advanced research on bipolar disorder, through two challenge grants that are designed to encourage smaller donations by individuals.

If the challenge is met, U-M scientists and their colleagues will have $3 million to pour into research on a disease that traps 5.7 million Americans on a medical roller coaster of manic highs and depressed lows that can be debilitating or even fatal.

Donations of any size will be dedicated exclusively to further the work of the Heinz Prechter Bipolar Research Fund. Prechter was an automotive pioneer who fell victim to suicide in 2001 after battling bipolar disorder on and off for decades, even while building a successful business and attracting the admiration of friends and family.

The two challenge grants come from the World Heritage Foundation-Prechter Family Fund, which has pledged up to $1 million, and the Herrick Foundation, which has pledged up to $500,000.

“To truly understand why bipolar disorder occurs, and how we can treat it more effectively, our researchers must be able to explore every promising avenue and test every hypothesis,” says John Greden, MD, executive director of the Depression Center. “These two major challenge grants, and the many individual donations they will engender, will make that possible in the promising area of genetics.”

Already, hundreds of individuals have given DNA samples to build the repository of genetic material that the scientific team needs to perform advanced studies of tiny DNA changes that contribute to the disease.

By collecting DNA samples from thousands of people with the disease, and comparing it with DNA from people who don’t, the scientists hope to find out what puts someone at risk of bipolar disorder, and how to improve diagnosis and treatment. Each volunteer gives a small blood sample and agrees to be interviewed each year.

The Prechter Genes Project is identifying specific differences within genes that might work together to make a person more likely to develop bipolar disorder — or more likely to have frequent or severe “manic” and depressed episodes over the course of their life. The scientists are also looking for genes that might make someone with bipolar disorder more likely to have lifelong depression.

The lack of effective treatment for a substantial number of individuals – 30% to 50% of all people with bipolar disorder — is a major reason for the high risk of suicide and suicide attempts among people with the condition, McInnis says. Up to 15% of people with bipolar disorder will commit suicide, a tragedy that changes the lives of families, friends and communities forever.

• Affinergy, a Duke University (Durham, North Carolina) spinout with a proprietary site-specific biological delivery system, reported that it has been awarded multiple Small Business Innovation Research program grants (SBIR).

One of the awards is a Phase 2 SBIR program for $2,053,845. The Phase 2 grant is funded through the National Institute of Health (NIH) by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (Bethesda, Maryland).

The focus of the program is to advance development and optimization of Affinergy peptide linkers to accelerate a patient’s natural healing processes.

The other four grant awards are for Phase 1 programs that, in aggregate, exceed $1 million.