SBIR/STTR Research Award
Developing Novel Arginine Biased Arrays for Epigenetic Research
Award amount
$1,499,995Program and phase
SBIR · Phase IIAward year
2017Award details
- Awarding agency
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Branch
- National Institutes of Health
- Recipient company
- EPICYPHER, INC.
- Proposal award date
- 2017-08-01
- Contract end date
- 2019-07-31
- UEI
- UWNWSADJYYZ3
- Solicitation number
- PA16-302
- Topic code
- 400
Research abstract
PROJECT SUMMARYEpigeneticregulatorsrepresentanewfrontierindrugdiscoveryandarerapidlyattractingpharmaceuticalinterestsduetotheirremarkabledruggabilityandstrongconnectionwithhumandiseasese gmetabolicsyndromesneurodegenerativedisordersandcancersTodatetheepigenomeconsistsofoverknownproteinsHoweververyfewepigeneticmodifiersarebeingpursuedindrugdevelopmentprograms due to our limited understanding of what proteins these enzymes regulateThis narrow saturation oftheepigeneticdrugarenaisfueledbyadearthoftoolstosystematicallyidentifyandcharacterizepotentialtargetsTo aid in the discovery of novel relationships between enzymes and the proteins that they targetwe willcommercializehighcomplexityorientedpeptidearraylibrariesOPALsInPhaseIstudieswesynthesizedOPALlibrariescomprisingacorearginineROPALorlysineKOPALresiduewithflankingdegeneratesequencesoraminoacidsinbothNandCterminaldirectionsFigureanddemonstratedthatOPALsarepowerfultoolstosystematicallycharacterizetargetmotifsofwriterenzymesOurfocushereistodevelop OPALs to examinewriterenzymes that modify lysine or arginine residuesIn Phase IIEpiCypher willscale up synthesis of the unmodified KOPAL and ROPAL peptide libraries and optimize a highthroughputwell assay format for validation using methyltransferase assays developed in the Phase I studiesAimWewillalsovastlyexpandthecommercialutilityofourdiscoveryplatformontwofrontsdevelopinganonradioactive detection system and a userfriendly data analysis pipeline establishingAimandexpandingour KOPAL platform to analyze lysineacylation writer enzymesAimSeven additional lysinemodified acylgroupposttranslationalmodificationsofwhichacetylationisafoundingmemberhavebeenrecentlyidentifiede gcrotonylationbutyrylationor propionylationwhich function together with lysine acetylation toregulategeneactivationGiventhewelldescribedroleofhistoneacetylationindiseasethesenewacylationPTMsrepresentanexcitingnewfieldofepigeneticstudythathasgreatdrugdevelopmentpotentialTheinnovativediscoveryplatformdescribedhereinprovidesthefirstcomprehensivescreeningtooltostudyepigeneticwriterenzymesEpiCypherhasassembledastrongscientificteamconsistingofpioneersinthefieldofepigeneticregulationDrsMarkBedfordandScottRothbartanddetectionchemistryDrMarceyWaterstodeveloparobustversatileanduserfriendlydiscoveryplatformthatwillhaveapowerfultranslational impact on epigenetic research and therapeutic development
Technology keywords
Not reported
Other awards by this recipient
Verified by the same UEI. These are other public SBIR/STTR award pages, not a merged company record.
- Development of novel epigenetic biomarkers and detection reagents for aging
- Epigenomic analysis of cell-free nucleosomes for cancer research
- Asymmetric nucleosome substrates to advance the study of the histone code
- Versatile genomics platform for unbiased analysis of chromatin-associated RNAs and nascent transcripts
- Scalable and quantitative chromatin profiling from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples
Awards with the same topic code
Verified by an exact topic code match. This is not a text-similarity match.
- Platform for Optimizing Yield and Quality of Therapeutic AAV Vector Manufacturing via Synthetic Helper Genes
- Ultra-low-temperature (6 K) static NMR-DNP for metalloproteins, proteins in cells, and materials
- Dynamical Diffraction Analysis for 3D Electron Crystallography
- Synthetic biology approaches for bio-orthogonal labeling of circular RNAs
- Break Wave lithotripsy to fragment large kidney stones
Research funding history
64 SBIR/STTR records share this UEI (2014–2025). Reported award amounts total $79,150,531. Reported amounts are not federal obligations.
Phases: Phase I, Phase II, Phase II – Direct to Phase II
Agencies: Department of Health and Human Services