NemaLife’s AI-assisted microfluidics-based tech platform receives funding to pursue rapid discovery of drug candidates that could improve muscle function.
LUBBOCK, TX, UNITED STATES, September 13, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- NemaLife Inc., a techbio company focusing on high throughput in vivo screening, is delighted to announce that our co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Mizanur (Mizan) Rahman, Ph.D. has received a prestigious award from the Research and Entrepreneurial Development and Immersion (REDI) program of the National Institute of Aging (NIA). The REDI program fosters entrepreneurship training for young scientists working in the fields of aging and age-related diseases. The award provides $400,000 in funding to pursue an industry mentor-guided project to screen a library of compounds for sarcopenia therapeutics and provide business training to commercialize the discovered hits.
Mizan has been leading NemaLife’s technology efforts to scale our microfluidics-based high throughput discovery engine that uses the nematode C. elegans and AI for screening compounds and ingredients for the food, microbiome, nutraceutical, and pharma industries. He developed our patented microfluidic chips that are central to automating worm culture across life using only milligrams of sample. The microfluidic chips he designed have been flown to the International Space Station in collaboration with NASA, making 800 orbits around the planet, to investigate microgravity-induced changes in C. elegans muscle strength.
An alumnus of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas Tech University, Mizan co-founded NemaLife based on his Ph.D. work focusing on microfluidics-based phenotyping of aging C. elegans. Learning about the award, Mizan said, “I am deeply honored to receive this recognition from the NIA in the inaugural launch of the REDI program. I am particularly grateful to Dhaval Patel, Ph.D., Director of Research and Innovation at NemaLife, for providing scientific guidance on the application. This award gives me a fantastic opportunity to grow as an entrepreneur, work with the outstanding NemaLife team, learn from the best industry mentors, and contribute to the longevity therapeutics field.”
Supporting Mizan’s entrepreneurship journey is his industry mentor, the Founder, and CEO of Ichor Life Sciences, Kelsey Moody, Ph.D., MBA. He is a seasoned executive who has studied aging and aging mechanisms for more than a decade and has a long history of leading drug discovery programs targeting the hallmarks of aging.
“I am excited for Mizan and the NemaLife team to receive this prestigious award. Sarcopenia results in progressive loss of muscle mass and strength associated with an increased risk of falls, frailty, and death. With the growing aging population and lack of FDA-approved treatments, there is an urgent need for sarcopenia therapeutics. This REDI award is an important and right step in this direction,” said Kelsey Moody.
Siva Vanapalli, Ph.D., CEO of NemaLife Inc., said, “I congratulate Mizan and the NemaLife team for this outstanding accomplishment. It is a testament to the impact we are creating in the geroscience field, where more than half of the known lifespan-extending drugs have been discovered in C. elegans and shown to be translatable to mammalian models. With Mizan heading our AI-assisted tech platform, we are poised to rapidly discover anti-sarcopenia drugs using the worm model and putting more lead candidates into the drug development pipeline”.
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 pre-clinical 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 with the aim of improving the quality of human life on a healthy planet.
For more information, visit www.nemalifeinc.com
Research funding reported in this press release is supported by the National Institute of Aging of the National Institutes of Health under award number R43AG078715. 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 or info@nemalifeinc.com.
Marton TothNemaLife Inc. marton.toth@nemalifeinc.com Visit us on social media: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Other
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