, the leading CRO expert in ion channels and  nonclinical cardiac safety testing, announces funding of a Phase II SBIR grant.  ChanTest will use  the grant from the National Heart Lung & Blood Institute to optimize drug safety and discovery  assays using stem cell-derived human cardiomyocytes.  

"This grant will allow us to optimize our industry-leading cardiomyocyte assays," said  ChanTest's Principal Investigator Andrew Bruening-Wright, Ph.D.  "With our collaborators at  FDA, DSEC, and Leadscope, Inc., we have improved predictivity models based on currently  available ChanTest services.  Our nonclinical models will only get better as we fully integrate  cardiomyocyte-based assays."   

These cardiomyocyte assays are critical for improving the predictivity of nonclinical testing and  reducing the use of animals as proposed in the NIH roadmap for drug discovery and the FDA's  critical path initiative.  The grant will also fund development of automated instrument-based  services to increase throughput and drive down costs to meet the needs of ChanTest  customers.  

Dr. Arthur "Buzz" Brown, founder and CEO of ChanTest and co-PI on the grant, added  "ChanTest has assembled an expert team to ensure success of this grant. We'll build on this  success to improve drug discovery for other diseases in which ion channels play a critical role."