CODA Biotherapeutics Receives Grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) —
Summary
NINDS Small Business Innovation Research grant of $670K over two years to support CODA’s neuropathic pain program Company also selected for collaboration with NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Science SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., November 10, 2020 – CODA Biotherapeutics, Inc., a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a gene therapy-mediated chemogenetic platform to treat neurological disorders and diseases with an initial focus on neuropathic pain and epilepsy, today announced it has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Company’s innovative treatment aims to modulate specific neuronal circuits where pain arises via adeno-associated virus-mediated delivery of an engineered inhibitory receptor. “Ab neurons are a key cell type for the evaluation of our receptor-ligand combinations and their development should advance the translational understanding of how our approach may impact pain states in patients. Through this partnership, CODA will collaborate with and gain access to the scientific capabilities, expertise, state-of-the-art technologies, and resources of the NCATS DPI to develop iPSC-derived human Ab sensory neurons, which will help us progress our neuropathic pain therapies toward the clinic,” added Mr. Narachi. The AAV vectors encode ligand-gated ion channels (chemogenetic receptors) that are highly responsive to specific proprietary small molecule therapeutics but are otherwise inactive.