ChanTest has received a $1m Phase II SBIR grant from the National Heart Lung & Blood Institute to optimize drug safety and discovery assays using stem cell-derived human cardiomyocytes.
The cardiomyocyte assays are designed for improving the predictivity of nonclinical testing and reducing the use of animal, as proposed in the NIH roadmap for drug discovery and the FDA’s critical path initiative.
ChanTest principal investigator Andrew Bruening-Wright said the grant will allow the company to optimize its cardiomyocyte assays.
"With our collaborators at FDA, DSEC, and Leadscope, Inc., we have improved predictivity models based on currently available ChanTest services," Bruening-Wright added.
"Our nonclinical models will only get better as we fully integrate cardiomyocyte-based assays."