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news.Galenea has been awarded a $4.5m grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to advance its Mantra (Multiwell, Automated NeuroTRansmission Assay) technology platform and, to identify and progress novel compounds for the treatment of schizophrenia.
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The grant is in response to the solicitation ‘Recovery Act Limited Competition: NIH Director’s Opportunity for Research in Five Thematic Areas (RC4),’ funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The first grant was awarded in October 2009 as part of the NIH Challenge Grant in Health and Science Research (RC1) and is currently supporting the development of a novel technology for measuring in vivo biomarkers that predict the activity of potential treatments for diseases associated with impaired cognition.
Galenea said that Mantra enables high-throughput screening for the identification of small molecule modulators of synaptic transmission.
Mantra also has drug discovery potential for many other psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases associated with impairments in synaptic transmission, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease, Galenea said.
Galenea co-founder and CNS Research VP David Gerber said that the two grants validate the company’s innovative approach to increase the success rate of drug discovery and development in the neuroscience field.
Galenea CEO Mark Benjamin said that only through innovation will the industry find breakthrough medicines for patients suffering from the devastating effects of schizophrenia and other central nervous system diseases.
Galenea is focused on discovering and developing psychiatric and neurodegenerative therapeutics.