Peptides International Researcher Awarded NIH Grant

Aug. 31, 2011 - PRLog -- Peptides International is pleased to announce that the company’s Chief Technical Officer Dr. Michael Pennington, along with co-investigators, Dr. Christine Beeton of Baylor College of Medicine, and Raymond S. Norton of Monash University (Australia) have secured a NIH RO1 grant.  The grant will aid investigation of peptide therapies geared towards treating and ameliorating multiple sclerosis.  It is notable this comes during a time that NIH belt-tightening has made these highly sought-after and available to only those with the most truly relevant scientific goals.  The grant, set to begin September 1, 2011, will provide funding for five years of support and build upon an already highly successful platform that utilizes the sea anemone-derived peptide ShK as a template for refinement of more selective peptide therapeutics.

One of their discoveries from a previous NIH grant, ShK186, has been acquired by Kineta, Inc., a Seattle-based privately held biotechnology company.  That compound is set to enter human trials in November 2011.

Additionally, this grant award arrives concurrent to the publication of an article entitled, Analogs of the Sea Anemone Potassium Channel Blocker ShK for the Treatment of Autoimmune Diseases, which is coauthored by the three investigators, and will appear in the journal Inflammation and Allergy – Drug Targets, (2011) volume 10.

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Peptides International Inc. (PEPNET.COM), is a US-based provider of peptide-related catalog products & custom chemistry services specializing in peptides, reagents, building blocks, & enzyme substrates & inhibitors to corporations & research institutions.