Dr. Julie Ledford and her co-principle investigators were awarded a Phase 2 Small Business Technology Transfer grant for their startup company RaeSedo, Inc. The project is titled, "Development of SP-A Derived Peptidomimetics for the Treatment of Asthma" and the total award will amount to $3.4 Million over two years. Dr. Scott Boitano (UArizona), Dr. Josef Vagner (UArizona), and Dr. Monica Kraft (Mount Sinai Medicine) are the co-principle investigators on the project. More about their company, RaeSedo:
Our company, RaeSedo Inc., was founded on the principle that we can create custom modifications of the active region of SP-A that are delivered in small peptidomimetic form that have improved pharmacokinetic properties and stability. These SP-A derived peptidomimetics represent a new class of asthma therapeutics. During Phase 1, RaeSedo Inc. and the University of Arizona, worked to meet the milestones proposed: Design, synthesize and optimize peptidomimetics and to characterize the bioactivity of the peptidomimetics at specific cellular targets to identify lead compounds. RaeSedo Inc.’s objectives for the Phase 2 proposal are to advance aerosol development, pharmacology and evaluation of toxicity of our lead compound in two large animal models through collaborations with the University of Arizona, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Lovelace Biomedical. The overall goal of this phase 2 proposal is to demonstrate safety in two healthy animal models-rats and canines. If successful, RaeSedo Inc. will be equipped to submit an IND application bringing a new class of asthma therapeutics to the FDA for approval.