FASgen, Inc., a Baltimore-based developer of small molecule therapeutics and diagnostics fatty acid biosynthesis targets, was awarded a $1.4 million Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) Phase II NIH grant for continued research for obesity. FASgen has conducted extensive research into the effects of inhibition of the fatty acid biosynthesis pathway on the regulation of appetite and weight loss for some time.
The company has developed numerous families of compounds that act on the well identified targets in the pathway, including fatty acid synthase (FAS), carnitine palmitoyl transferase-1 (CPT-1) and mitochondrial glyceraol-3aclytransferase (GPAT). The current research effort will optimize FASgen's compounds for use in future clinical trials. The research is in part conducted in cooperation with labs at Johns Hopkins University under a research agreement between the FASgen and Johns Hopkins.
"This grant supplements the Company's extensive product development efforts in the metabolic disease field. The weight loss effects seen to date in preclinical in vivo experiments have applications in various indications, including obesity, diabetes, and fatty liver disease, including specifically non-alcoholic steatohepatitis," says Susan Medghalchi, Ph.D., FASgen's principal investigator under the grant.
FASgen's Chairman, Eric F. Stoer, also says that the metabolic program runs in parallel with the company's successful efforts to develop a different set of FAS inhibitor compounds for use in the treatment of cancer. The company's oncology program was partnered with J&J last year and that collaboration continues to demonstrate the validity of the principle that FASi can and does safely kill cancer cells.
Source: Susan Medghalchi, PH.D., FASgen
Writer: Walaika Haskins