Celiac.com 03/19/2009 - Numerate Inc., a biotechnology company leveraging a novel drug engineering process to design lead-stage drug compounds, announced today it has received a Phase 1 grant from the National Institute of diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) award, entitled “Drug Engineering of transglutaminase 2 Inhibitors,” will be used to support a research collaboration between Numerate and the laboratory of Chaitan Khosla, Ph.D., the Wells H. Rauser and Harold M. Petiprin Professor of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at Stanford University.

“This NIH Phase 1 STTR award validates the attractiveness of Numerate’s drug engineering process for the design of new small molecule drugs,” stated John Griffin, Ph.D., Numerate’s chief scientific officer and principal investigator of the project. “In addition, it recognizes the potential of transglutaminase 2 inhibitors for the treatment of Celiac Sprue. Professor Khosla is a leader in Celiac disease research, and we are pleased to have the support of the NIH in our collaboration with him and his laboratory.”

Professor Khosla, who will serve as co-investigator for the STTR research project, added, “Transglutaminase 2 is central to the pathophysiology of Celiac Sprue, and offers a compelling target for a disease for which no pharmacotherapy currently exists. I look forward to having Numerate apply its breakthrough technology to this important problem.”

Celiac Sprue, also known as celiac disease, is an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine involving intolerance to gluten proteins found in wheat and other grains.

About Numerate

Numerate is a privately held biotechnology company that has developed and extensively validated a drug engineering process that rapidly and cost-effectively delivers small molecule drug candidates optimized for efficacy, safety, and patentability. Numerate’s drug engineering process combines advances in computer science, statistics, and molecular modeling to address, in parallel, the factors that determine the success and failure of a drug. Numerate applies this proprietary process to design and develop small molecule therapeutics in collaboration with a variety of partners in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology fields. For more information, please visit www.numerate.com.

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