BellBrook Labs Awarded $2.7M in SBIR Grants to Develop High Throughput Screening and High Content Analysis Technologies

Madison, Wis. – November 9, 2009 – BellBrook Labs today announced that it has been awarded $2.7M in Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grants from the National Institutes of Health to fund ongoing work toward solutions for high throughput screening (HTS) and high content analysis (HCA), the two main approaches used for identifying candidate drug molecules. The research will help Bellbrook further develop its proprietary technology platforms—Transcreener^® for HTS and iuvo™ for HCA—which provide access to previously intractable protein drug targets and advanced cell models, ultimately accelerating the search for more effective therapies for a broad range of diseases.

Steve Hayes, Bellbrook's R&D Director, was awarded a Phase I grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), which will investigate how a more tissue-like, three-dimensional environment made possible in iuvo microchannels affects tumor cell responses to potential drug molecules. This is viewed as a promising approach for improving predictions of anti-cancer drug efficacy, thereby decreasing the number of costly clinical failures plaguing pharmaceutical R&D programs.

Ivar Meyvantsson, Bellbrook's Engineering Manager, was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) under a Phase II grant to improve and extend applications for the iuvo Chemotaxis Assay Plate. This plate is the first to enable automation of assays that quantify chemotaxis, a cellular function important in inflammation and cancer, which is mimicked in the plate by presenting cells with a defined molecular gradient. The first generation device is currently in field-testing with several pharma and academic customers.

Bob Lowery, Bellbrook's CEO, received funding for a Phase I grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and a Phase II grant from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Both grants are focused on extending the utility of Transcreener technology for identifying drugs that target kinases, the most intensively screened protein family, as well as many emerging drug targets that offer promise for new therapeutic strategies.

"These grants will enable BellBrook to aggressively pursue development of enabling drug discovery technologies during what is still a difficult period of restructuring and even some contraction in pharma and biotech R&D programs," said Lowery.