Press Releases

Congressman James P. McGovern (D) Massachusetts announced today that BioMedical Research Models Inc (BRM) has been awarded a two year STTR grant from the National Institutes of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases (NIAMS) totaling $571,610 ($429,584 year 1 & $142,026 year 2).

The award will facilitate the ongoing collaboration between the Feinstein Institute and BRM to develop small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of lupus, otherwise known as Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). SLE affects multiple organs in ~ 2 million Americans with devastating impact on the skin, joints, kidney, and brain.

Current therapeutic strategies for lupus are largely palliative or immune-suppressive with serious toxicities and no new drugs for SLE have been approved in decades. Thus, novel therapeutic approaches to lupus - particularly therapeutics that treat the underlying causes of the disease - are in great demand. The goals of the current proposal are to translate insights in the molecular mechanisms underlying SLE into the therapeutic arena. BRM will establish whether Feinstein's candidate lupus peptidomimetic small molecules possess valid drug-like properties to support preparation of a pre-investigational new drug package.

The Principal Investigator for this STTR grant is Thomas Coleman Ph.D., currently the Chief Science Officer at the New York based Feinstein Institute. The Co-investigator based at BRM in Worcester, MA is Christian Grant, Ph.D, a Research Director.

-This is a win-win for both an academic institute and for small business in Central Massachusetts," said Dr. Grant.

Dennis Guberski, President of BMR Inc: -It's not just the grant, it's the business opportunities it presents. We added positions last quarter, and are looking to add more going forward.-

"This highly competitive federal grant will allow BRM to expand on the cutting edge research they're doing here in Worcester to treat debilitating diseases, while spurring job growth.- said Congressman Jim McGovern. -BRM—which benefited from federal funding in 1997 as they began operations - is a prime example of how federal research funding continues to help spur job growth and economic development in our local biotech industry.-

Biomedical Research Models, Inc. In 1996 (BRM), spun out of the 1996 University of Massachusetts Medical school and today is a biopharmaceutical company which employs 57 people in Worcester/Springfield, MA. BRM is dedicated to the discovery, development and commercialization of novel proprietary therapeutics. BRM is a profitable company with active research pipelines in the areas of 1) Diabetes (and its associated complications), 2) Rheumatoid arthritis 3) Multiple sclerosis and 4) Genital herpes.

The Feinstein Institute: The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research is located on the campus of North Shore University Hospital. The Institute was created in 1999 to facilitate disease-oriented basic and clinical research within the Health System. The mission of the Institute is to understand the underlying biological processes of disease and to develop new and more effective therapies for patients.

The North Shore LIJ Health System is the third largest non-sectarian healthcare entity in the United States. Through its connection to the Health System, the Institute bridges the gap between biomedical research and patient care, accessing hundreds of thousands of patients in the Health System's 13 hospitals, four long-term care facilities, three trauma centers, six home health agencies and dozens of outpatient facilities with more than 5,670 patient beds, serving a catchment population of 6.5 million people and annual inpatient discharges of more than 215,000.