Ann Arbor-based Velcura Therapeutics Inc. was to announce today a $274,000 federal Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institute of Aging. The grant is intended to further identify the genes or protein networks modulated during human bone formation. Velcura was the first company in the world to grow human bone in tissue culture and has multiple patents on this process. The company uses its platform bone-growth technologies to discover and optimize drugs stimulating bone formation for use in treating diseases such as osteoporosis. Velcura's first drug, VEL-0230, is scheduled to begin human clinical trials in late 2007. "This NIA grant allows us to significantly advance our understanding of how genes and their protein-products work together inside a cell to bring about bone formation," Velcura's President and CEO Michael W. Long said in a statement. "Velcura's scientific team had identified about 1,200 genes involved in this process by 2004. Yet, only knowing the names of these key genes without understanding their functional interactions, just makes us hit the wall faster. To succeed in fighting osteoporosis and other diseases, we have to understand how these genes work together and which ones are crucial to the bone formation process."

Original article at Great Lakes IT Report