Fundamental Applied Biology Awarded SBIR Phase IIB Grant for the Commercialization of Protein Therapeutics

Fundamental Applied Biology, Inc. (FAB) has announced that it has been awarded a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase IIB grant from the National Science Foundation. The $500,000 grant will be used to continue to develop FAB’s cell-free protein synthesis technology towards commercialization.

During Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I and Phase II NSF projects, FAB successfully demonstrated that certain proteins could be made in a cell-free system in a soluble form, in a controllable and efficient fashion. With the Phase IIb grant, FAB will continue to develop the technology with a market-driven, therapeutic protein as FAB’s first target product.

“We are pleased to receive this grant from the NSF,” said Daniel S. Gold, PhD, CEO of FAB. “The grant will allow FAB to further develop and optimize our cell-free technology to enable the production of pharmaceutical protein therapeutics with the goal of improving their biological activity.”

“This grant reflects NSF’s continued interest in the commercialization potential of cell-free technology. The STTR Phase I and II grants were instrumental in supporting FAB’s research initiatives to develop marketable biologics as a continuation of work initiated in my laboratory at the Department of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University,” noted Professor James Swartz, D.Sc.

Intact organisms which have the limitation of having to maintain their own viability can have difficulty making toxic or difficult to fold proteins. Cell-free technology was designed to overcome these limitations.