Taiga Biotechnologies, Inc. — Department of Health and Human Services STTR Phase I: DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chronic skin wounds associated with various diseases
Taiga Biotechnologies, Inc. — STTR Phase I award from Department of Health and Human Services.
- Amount
- $194,672
- Agency
- Department of Health and Human Services · National Institutes of Health
- Program / Phase
- STTR · Phase I
- Solicitation
- PA13-235
- NAICS
- —
- Place of performance
- CO
- Period
- —
Description
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chronic skin wounds associated with various diseases (e.g., diabetes) and aberrant healing from acute wounding (e.g., hypertrophic scarring) is a major health care burden, which need scientific discovery-based therapeutic interventions. Our previous studies show that Smad7, a TGFb signaling antagonist, accelerates skin wound healing. We have developed a Smad7 fusion protein that contains the human Smad7 fused to the HIV-1 Tat protein transduction domain (PTD). The Tat-Smad7 protein can rapidly penetrate cells upon contact. Our preliminary data revealed that topical Tat-Smad7 application to skin wounds accelerated healing in wildtype and diabetes (db/db) mice. Our preliminary data also suggest that the Tat fusion protein containing either the N-terminal 258aa of Smad7 (Tat-N-Smad7) or the C-terminal 259-426aa of Smad7 (Tat-C-Smad7) could have full or partial effects of Tat-Smad7. This Phase I STTR application proposes to compare fusion protein efficacies of full length