Fibralign announced today that it has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Sequential Phase II (Phase IIS) from the Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Health Program (DHP). This two-year grant provides $996,609 in funding to continue advancing Fibralign’s development of a novel treatment of volumetric muscle loss.
Project Title: Aligned Nanofibrillar Scaffold Activated with HGF-mmRNA in Combination with Minced Muscle Graft for Treating Volumetric Muscle Loss (VML) Injury
This new project builds on Fibralign’s earlier DoD funded work in this field with previously awarded Phase I and Phase II SBIR grants that were conducted in collaboration with Stanford University. Fibralign is collaborating with Sarah Greising, PhD Assistant Professor of Exercise Physiology at the University of Minnesota in support of preclinical studies for this important project.
Musculoskeletal injuries account for approximately 77% of recent war casualties. These injuries are largely penetrating soft tissue wounds in the extremities, which can result in debilitating volumetric muscle loss (VML) injuries that have a profound impact on the warfighter’s quality of life. The lack of surgical or regenerative standards of care for VML injury indicates a clear unmet need to develop novel treatment options. Using its proprietary Nanoweave platform, Fibralign is developing an advanced composite 3D scaffold to provide localized delivery of cell and gene therapy to regenerate lost muscle tissue.