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Bioartificial Brain Slices for Drug Screening

Award Number: R44MH101958
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/25/2013
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 06/30/2022

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Bioartificial Brain Slices for Drug Screening - Abstract/Summary ISurTec is seeking SBIR funding to continue the development of a versatile bioartificial brain slice scaffold, designed for use in electrophysiological drug-screening assays. Acute brain slices, prepared from rats or mice, are currently the `gold standard' preparation for characterizing neural tissue responses to drugs, toxins, or other agents. However, the limited number of brain slices produced per animal, coupled with the high costs of animal care and use, remains a major limitation of this approach. Furthermore, due to interspecies genetic variation, preclinical data acquired through the use of acute brain slices will usually be of limited predictive power for human clinical trials and postmarket surveillance. The Phase I project demonstrated that 3D scaffolds containing an open-field architecture “blueprint” can spontaneously induce hippocampal CA3-CA1-like neural circuits from dissociated hippocampal cells. These bioartificial brain slices reliably generate field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs) that are sensitive to glutamate receptor antagonists. Phase I was accomplished through simultaneous control over the nanotopography and surface chemistry using ISurTec's photoreactive nanofibers. In Phase II, we will modify the scaffold design to improve both its performance and its manufacturability as well as develop and optimize protocols for culturing Glutamatergic, GABAergic, and Dopaminergic hNPCs on the scaffolds in conjunction with hGPCs. The optimized protocols will be used for assay validation, and the bioartificial human brain slices will be field tested for both drug development and toxicology. The human bioartificial brain slice is expected to be a valuable tool for drug development concerning a wide variety of human neurological diseases and disorders, including addiction, ADD/ADHD, depression, Parkinson's disease, pain processing, and schizophrenia. Our technology will advance the field of Central Nervous System (CNS) Drug Development by overcoming the following two limitations of acute slices derived from rodents: (1) its limited human relevance and (2) its high burden and cost of animal care compliance and oversight. Relevant to the current brain slice technique, our technique is low-cost and decreases animal sacrifice while increasing the predictive power of human neural progenitor cell assays. This SBIR project will create a bioartificial brain slice scaffold for patterning 3-dimensional, highly laminar open field arrays of human neuronal co-cultures for electrophysiology.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = -$43,113 )
2023	2019	INNOVATIVE SURFACE TECHNOLOGIES INC	1045 WESTGATE DR STE 100	SAINT PAUL	MN	55114	RAMSEY	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	4	9/8/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$43,113
														Subtotal = -$43,113

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2021	2019	INNOVATIVE SURFACE TECHNOLOGIES, INC	1045 WESTGATE DR STE 100	SAINT PAUL	MN	55114	RAMSEY	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	4	7/6/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $559,430 )
2019	2019	INNOVATIVE SURFACE TECHNOLOGIES, INC	1045 WESTGATE DR STE 100	SAINT PAUL	MN	55114	RAMSEY	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	4	7/5/2019	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$559,430
														Subtotal = $559,430

Issue Date FY: 2018 ( Subtotal = $542,765 )
2018	2018	INNOVATIVE SURFACE TECHNOLOGIES, INC	1045 WESTGATE DR STE 100	SAINT PAUL	MN	55114	RAMSEY	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	3	7/11/2018	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$542,765
														Subtotal = $542,765

Issue Date FY: 2017 ( Subtotal = $545,626 )
2017	2017	INNOVATIVE SURFACE TECHNOLOGIES, INC	1045 WESTGATE DR STE 100	SAINT PAUL	MN	55114	RAMSEY	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	2	9/15/2017	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$545,626
														Subtotal = $545,626

Grand Total All Awards = $1,604,708

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Bioartificial Brain Slices for Drug Screening

Award Number: R44MH101958

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/25/2013

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 06/30/2022

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