For the second time this year, Kalamazoo-based NanoVir has received funding from the National Institutes of Health.
NanoVir is researching drugs that could fight human papillomaviruses, or HPVs, the viral cause of all cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is a leading cause of death in women worldwide, second only to breast cancer. Each year, nearly 11,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer in the U.S. alone.
HPV is the primary cause of cervical cancer, and is also the most prevalent sexually-transmitted virus in the world.
Currently, there is no drug that can be used as a treatment once a woman has been diagnosed with HPV. NanoVir is working to find a drug that would clear the virus before it leads to cancer.
The $3 million grant over three years will allow NanoVir to do the studies required by the FDA to show the drugs are safe to take to clinical trials.
The company also expects to add one or two positions soon, says Chris Fisher of NanoVir and principal investigator on the grant.
The competition for NIH funds includes scientists from institutions in Boston and San Diego. "This is the quality of science we are up against," says Fisher.
It is the fifth grant, for a total of $9.5 million, earned by the company since 2004 when it began its work in the Southwest Michigan Innovation Center. Earlier this year NanoVir received a $1.83 million, five-year grant. The grant, designated as an ROI grant, is intended to support a specified research project.
Large pharmaceutical companies increasingly are relying on the scientific knowledge and individual motivation of scientists, like those at NanoVir to identify and to provide the next best therapeutic agents for unmet or under-served medical conditions, says Rob DeWit, chief executive officer of the Southwest Michigan Innovation Center. "It is fantastic that the NIH has recognized the potential of the work being done at NanoVir."
The lead chemist on the project is James Bashkin, co-founder of NanoVir and research associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Writer: Kathy Jennings
Source: Chris Fisher, Ph. D. Director of Biology, NanoVir, LLC