Terpenoid Therapeutics Inc., a University of Iowa spinout company based in Coralville, Iowa, has earned $224,000 in commercialization grants from the National Cancer Institute. The company was awarded two Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants, which are administered through the Small Business Administration.

Drug development at Terpenoid Therapeutics Inc. is based on research from the UI departments of Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Internal Medicine and Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the UI. The company was founded by Drs. Raymond J. Hohl, associate chair of internal medicine, and David F. Wiemer, chair of the Department of Chemistry in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Hohl and Wiemer, who have been interdisciplinary research collaborators for well over a decade, both hold appointments in the Department of Pharmacology.

The company has two broad drug development projects, both aimed at treating cancer. The first lead molecule is based on targets within the cholesterol metabolic pathway and is intended to treat metastatic bone disease associated with prostate and breast cancer and multiple myeloma. The second lead is being developed to treat brain cancers. “We believe drugs derived from both of these projects have the strong potential to improve outcomes for patients with these diseases, and will improve quality of care by having fewer side effects than existing agents,” says Jeff Neighbors, a founder of Terpenoid and an assistant research scientist at the UI.

To read the full press release, click here.

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