NemaLife receives funding to develop a neurotherapeutic discovery platform using next-generation psychedelic compounds.
LUBBOCK, TX, USA, September 27, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- NemaLife Inc., a techbio company focused on high throughput in vivo screening, is delighted to announce that it has received funding from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA). This new funding of $320,000 enables NemaLife to partner with companies in the growing psychedelic market by expanding the capabilities of its technology platform to screen for therapeutics for neurobehavioral disorders using a tractable biological model, the worm C. elegans.
Neurobehavioral conditions such as mood and substance use disorders require treatments that can repair neural circuitry. The next generation of non-hallucinogenic psychedelic compounds, referred to as psychoplastogens, represent a powerful source of therapeutics for these disorders. However, screening the vast chemical space of psychoplastogens for effective compounds requires new technology that enables high-throughput in vivo assessment in validated behavioral models.
Dhaval Patel, Ph.D., Director of Research and Innovation at NemaLife, said, “I am thrilled to lead this effort at NemaLife along with our outstanding collaborators to address this unmet need in the neuropsychiatric field. We aim to accelerate the therapeutic pipeline for neurobehavioral disorders using NemaLife’s high throughput in vivo discovery engine. C. elegans has a compact nervous system of 300 neurons, uses conserved neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine, and can be humanized via CRISPR editing. This biological tractability, plus our microfluidics and AI automation, presents a unique opportunity to rapidly identify therapeutic psychoplastogens.”
“Our research has demonstrated that psychoplastogens promote neural plasticity and offer enormous potential for treating neuropsychiatric diseases such as depression, anxiety, and addiction. NemaLife’s high throughput behavioral pharmacology platform using the worm model offers a unique opportunity for us to quickly gain in vivo insights into the safety and potency of our novel compounds”, said Prof. David E. Olson, associate professor at the University of California, Davis and Chief Innovation Officer at Delix Therapeutics.
Siva Vanapalli, Ph.D., CEO of NemaLife Inc., said, “I congratulate Dhaval and the NemaLife team for this outstanding accomplishment. This funding unlocks a new direction for us. We are excited to partner with companies in the psychedelic space that have drug programs in the preclinical phase and are experiencing bottlenecks in identifying hits and help them accelerate their therapeutic pipelines”.
About NemaLife
NemaLife is a techbio platform company developing AI and microfluidics-based solutions for various industries to reduce the costs and carbon footprint associated with screening. Its patented low-cost whole organism assays help de-risk and accelerate product development by providing actionable data that reduce the use of mammals in preclinical assays. NemaLife’s technology is built with scalability and versatility in mind, helping innovative companies and academic laboratories accelerate their R&D and scientific discoveries to improve the quality of human life on a healthy planet.
Research funding reported in this press release is supported by the National Institute of Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under award number R43DA056089. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Investor and Media Contacts
For further information and inquiries, please contact: marton.toth@nemalifeinc.com and info@nemalifeinc.com.
Marton Toth
NemaLife Inc.
marton.toth@nemalifeinc.com