TUCSON, AZ, July 27, 2021 – ZelosDx, Inc. announced today that the company is the recipient of a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase l Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a grant entitled, “ Phagocytic Cells in Peripheral Blood as a Novel Diagnostic Tool for Brain Health”. The company will receive a one-year grant of up to $255,000 to expand the company’s pioneering biomarker research.
ZelosDx plans to demonstrate that phagocytic cells in peripheral blood present a novel tool for a rapid and low-cost diagnostics of brain health, and to provide such a tool to the clinical research community to enable breakthrough discoveries in disease onset and progression, drug development and patient care. “It is well known that phagocytic cells are recruited to inflamed brain tissue where they engulf debris resulting from disease or trauma,” said Dr. Uwe Muller, PhD, and VP of Product Development. “More recently it has been shown that such debris is also generated in cognitively normal brains,” Dr Muller explains. ZelosDx was the first to demonstrate that phagocytic cells carrying brain biomarkers can reenter the blood stream, presenting a novel and unrecognized source of molecular biomarkers for neurodegeneration in the aging, diseased, or traumatized brain
The broader impact of this SBIR Phase I project addresses the challenges posed to the US healthcare system resulting from neurologic disease and trauma that affect the lives of over 100 million patients in the US alone. The associated annual healthcare cost in excess of $1.3 trillion is likely to increase due to the rising prevalence of neurological diseases and the aging demographics in the US. The main reason for this is a lack of reliable methods that can detect the onset of disease before it can destruct the neuronal tissue beyond repair. There is a great need for low-cost, objective diagnostic tools that aid in the monitoring of brain health to allow early detection of disease, as well as its progression and outcome. ZelosDx is working to build a commercially feasible business, while also responsibly addressing an increasingly important US healthcare need.
About the National Science Foundation SBIR Program
The NSF SBIR program is intended to support scientific and engineering excellence and technological innovation that is moving from the lab to the market. By investing federal research and development funds into startups and small businesses, NSF hopes to build a strong national economy and stimulate the creation of novel products, services, and solutions in the private sector; strengthen the role of small business in meeting federal research and development needs; increase the commercial application of federally supported research results; and develop and increase the US workforce, especially by fostering and encouraging participation by socially and economically disadvantaged and women-owned small businesses.
For more information, visit https://seedfund.nsf.gov/
About ZelosDx, Inc.
ZelosDx is accelerating breakthrough discoveries in brain disease and health with novel blood testing products we call WINDOW INTO THE BRAIN™. The ZelosDx proprietary biomarker technology can be used by pharmaceutical companies as tools for drug discovery and by researchers conducting studies in brain disease. The company is located in Tucson, Arizona.
Please visit www.zelosdx.com for more information about the company and their patented technology.
Contact: Marie Wesselhoft, mwesselhoft@zelosdx.com 1-520-907-3267
ZelosDx was formerly MSDx
As of August 2020, MsDx has re-branded as ZelosDx