CARB-X (Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator) has announced an award of $1.06 million to the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) to develop a new class of small-molecule inhibitors of bacterial sliding clamp (DnaN), a pivotal component of DNA replication machinery, which is a clinically unproven but promising novel mechanism for targeting bacteria.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) has awarded a 3-year grant totaling approximately $4.1 million to the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital to fund completion of preclinical studies, manufacturing and preparation of an IND application for a first-in-human trial to advance adeno-associated virus (AAV)-ATP7A gene therapy for the treatment of Menkes disease.

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) has received a multiyear $6 million award from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to develop innovative stem cell approaches to treat children and adolescents with recurrent solid tumors. The CIRM funding will support further CHLA research into harnessing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy.

Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) is awarding Glyprovac LLC US$467,000 to develop a maternal vaccine that targets Escherichia coli, a bacterial species responsible for a large portion of neonatal sepsis infections.

Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X), led by Boston University, is awarding $1.2 million to the Andrew G. Myers Research Group at Harvard University to develop a series of enhanced oral antibiotics that directly target a range of antibiotic-resistant bacteria which cause serious lower respiratory tract and skin and soft tissue infections.

Parents Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD) has provided $500,000 in funding to Kinea Bio Inc. 

Myrobalan Therapeutics Inc. has been awarded a $400,000 grant from the ALS Association to support the advancement of its colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF-1R) inhibitor for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Acurastem Inc. has raised nearly $7 million in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Defense (DoD) to advance research in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia.

Vesper Bio ApS has been awarded a grant worth $873,000 by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) to assess sortilin inhibition in Parkinson’s disease.