Thursday, October 30, 2025 10/30/2025

Developing extracellular vesicle based therapeutics against pre-term birth through the use of maternal-fetal interface on a chip

Award Number: UH3TR003283
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL CENTER FOR ADVANCING TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCES
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/01/2020
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 01/31/2026

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Developing extracellular vesicle based therapeutics against pre-term birth through the use of maternal-fetal interface on a chip - Spontaneous preterm birth (PTB) accounts for ~60% of all preterm births (15 million PTBs/year and 1 million neonatal deaths around the globe). Balanced immune homeostasis by fetal and maternal compartments ensure pregnancy maintenance and feto-placental growth. Premature disruption of immune homeostasis and overwhelming host inflammatory response due to infectious or other non-infectious risk factors lead to majority of PTBs. PTB rate has not declined in the past several decades, and current PTB prevention strategies do not address fetal immune responses, a key mediator that triggers preterm labor. The proposing team has recently used an innovative technology to engineer exosomes to be enriched with an inhibitor to NF-κB, termed as super repressor IκBα [SR], or anti-inflammatory Interleukin 10 (eIL-10). Pilot studies using a transgenic mouse model showed successful delay in PTB without any side effects, which was associated with reduction in inflammation at the feto-maternal interface tissues (F-M; fetal membrane cells and maternal decidua). However, moving this to the next stage is challenging, as a very large number of non-human primates, the animal model that most closely resembles the human F-M interface, will be needed, which is cost prohibitive. An organ-on-chip (OOC) model that faithfully represents the structure, functions, and responses of human F-M interface can overcome such challenges. The proposing team has recently reported the first F-M interface OOC model, which was successfully utilized to show the interactive and transitional properties of primary cells, resembling their biological functions in utero. In the UG3 phase, this model will be expanded to include the full F-M interface, recreate a healthy and disease inflammatory state, and be fully validated for their cellular functions and responses predisposing to PTB. The UG3 aims are: Aim 1 To validate the F-M interface OOC model; Aim 2 To establish disease F-M interface OOC models. The UH3 aims are: Aim 3 To test extracellular vesicle (EV)-encoded experimental drug NF-kB repressor (SR) and eIL-10 on normal and disease F-M interface OOC models; Aim 4 Conduct pre-clinical trial using the OOC model to investigate the impact of population variability and fetal sex on the efficacy of the experimental drug. The success of the proposed research will produce a personalized F-M interface OOC model that can mimic either healthy or disease state of pregnancy, which can be used to test the effect of candidate therapeutic molecules to expedite processes towards clinical trials and or eliminate/minimize certain steps from expensive clinical trials.


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: 2025 ( Subtotal = $743,099 )
2025	2025	TEXAS A&M ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION	3124 TAMU	COLLEGE STATION	TX	77843	BRAZOS	USA	National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences	001	5	9/11/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$74,309
2025	2025	TEXAS A&M ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION	3124 TAMU	COLLEGE STATION	TX	77843	BRAZOS	USA	National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences	000	5	1/17/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$668,790
														Subtotal = $743,099

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $750,187 )
2024	2024	TEXAS A&M ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION	3124 TAMU	COLLEGE STATION	TX	77843	BRAZOS	USA	National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences	001	4	1/31/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$674,244
2024	2024	TEXAS A&M ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION	3124 TAMU	COLLEGE STATION	TX	77843	BRAZOS	USA	National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences	002	4	5/15/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$74,915
2024	2023	TEXAS A&M ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION	3124 TAMU	COLLEGE STATION	TX	77843	BRAZOS	USA	National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences	000	3	12/12/2023	EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS	$1,028
														Subtotal = $750,187

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $771,525 )
2023	2023	TEXAS A&M ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION	3124 TAMU	COLLEGE STATION	TX	77843	BRAZOS	USA	National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences	000	3	1/20/2023	EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS	$771,525
														Subtotal = $771,525

Grand Total All Awards = $2,264,811

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Developing extracellular vesicle based therapeutics against pre-term birth through the use of maternal-fetal interface on a chip

Award Number: UH3TR003283

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL CENTER FOR ADVANCING TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCES

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT

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

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/01/2020

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 01/31/2026

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