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February 2024 This month's brainbuzz™ features outstanding results from the recent federal CIHR Project Grant competition, as well as a year in review of CAMH's Industry Partnerships & Technology Transfer Office (IPTTO). Please reach out if you have any questions or feedback. Aristotle Voineskos CIHR Grant Results: Fall 2023 CycleWe are proud to announce the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Project Grant Fall 2023 funding recipients at CAMH! Congratulations to our eight grant recipients, who received a total of $5,451,176 in funding! 
Year in Review: 
IPTTO Mission: Technology transfer ensures that the cutting-edge discoveries of CAMH scientists are accessible to a broad range of partners who can help bring the technology to full maturity and to market, ultimately for the goal of benefitting patients around the world. 
Seed Stage Financing Closed - Dr. Etienne Sibille
DAMONA Pharmaceuticals, a biopharma spinoff company created by Dr. Etienne Sibille and CAMH, facilitated by the Industry Partnerships & Technology Transfer Office (IPTTO), has raised an impressive $5.5 million USD in seed stage financing. This significant investment will be utilized to advance the development of their lead molecule, aimed at addressing cognitive deficits associated with depression and diseases of aging. In addition to this remarkable achievement, DAMONA Pharmaceuticals has made a strategic move by appointing Mr. John Reilly as their Chief Executive Officer (CEO). With his extensive background as an ex-biotech executive and years of experience in drug development, John brings invaluable expertise to the table. Notably, he possesses a commendable track record of successfully taking pre-clinical assets through IND (Investigational New Drug) stages. Helping new mothers prevent postpartum blues - Dr. Jeff MeyerThe IPTTO successfully negotiated and closed a licensing deal with a women's health pharma company 
to bring to the global market an innovative nutraceutical to prevent postpartum blues developed and tested by Dr. Meyer. The nutraceutical is a patent protected unique combination of natural ingredients that replenish essential neurochemicals in the brain to boost mood.
After an extensive search, conducted by the IPTTO, we've partnered with a leading women's health pharma company to launch Dr. Meyer's groundbreaking nutraceutical globally. With their extensive international presence, manufacturing capabilities, regulatory expertise, and marketing prowess in over 40 countries, we're confident in delivering this mood-boosting solution to new moms worldwide. Product sales launch in March 2024 in the US! Key to the IPTTO mission - this partnership will enable a CAMH discovery to impact patient care globally - true bench to bedside at scale. 
Advancing development of novel drug candidate for MS - Dr. Fang LiuDr. Fang Liu and her team uncovered the pivotal role of GluR2-GAPDH interaction in glutamate-mediated excitotoxicity (Wang et al, 2012), shedding light on a new avenue for potential therapeutic interventions. Building upon this discovery, they've made remarkable progress by transitioning from a custom-designed peptide to a small molecule approach, demonstrating efficacy in two mouse models of MS (Zhai et al, 2023). This groundbreaking work was made possible through the support of commercialization grants, co-written by the IPTTO, that were obtained from the CAMH Discovery Commercialization Fund (through Campbell Family support), CIHR, the Canadian & US MS Societies (first-ever grant co-funded by US/CA MS society to a Canadian scientist) and the CAMH Discovery Fund Accelerator award. As a testament to Dr. Liu's research and the therapeutic potential of this novel treatment approach, they are to be awarded an additional MS Society Research Commercialization grant of $800k USD. This generous funding will fuel further advancements in late stage preclinical development, bringing us one step closer to transforming scientific breakthroughs into tangible solutions for those affected by MS. The IPTTO continues to support the commercialization journey of this therapeutics program. See press release and recent Science Advances paper for more info. A4i hosts HEARTS showcase in CaliforniaIPTTO was instrumental in the creation of A4i, a joint venture between CAMH and Toronto digital health company, Memotext. A4i is a digital platform 
supporting patients with complex behavioral and mental health conditions. 
designed to inform, engage, and inspire healthcare professionals, patients, and digital health enthusiasts alike. 
Incorporation of Kelello Health Measurement Based Care platform company
Since 2017, CAMH has been working to develop and implement a series of measurement based care pathways across it's clinics. These pathways have become the gold standard of delivering analytics informed patient care via digital platform. 
With its recent incorporation, and under IPTTO guidance, Kelello Health is beginning its search for funding partners and pilot sites to validate its platform outside of CAMH. This will be the first step in taking the measurement based care lessons learned at CAMH and delivering them to a global patient population. 
Buzz-worthy News
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