ANN ARBOR, Mich., Aug. 29, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- MIR Preclinical Services (MIR) has been awarded a Phase I NIH small business innovation research (SBIR) grant to perform preclinical testing of a novel therapy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and micro-computed tomography (micro-CT). Dr. Patrick McConville, Ph.D., a preclinical imaging specialist, is the principal investigator in this project, and will be collaborating with Dr. Jayanth Panyam, Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Dr. Paul Wooley, Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, Immunology & Microbiology and Biomedical Engineering from Wayne State University
The work will examine the efficacy of intra-articular delivery of a secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI) using a thermo-reversible gel system, a therapy developed by Dr. Panyam. Noninvasive, high resolution three dimensional MRI and micro-CT techniques will be used to follow disease progression and measure the effect of therapy at micron resolution in a rat model of arthritis.
"An important part of MIR's corporate mission is to develop and validate preclinical imaging methods that will forecast the clinical potential of drug candidates", stated Dr. Patrick McConville, a senior scientist at MIR. "This grant will not only allow MIR to contribute to development of an exciting new therapy for rheumatoid arthritis, but will also allow MIR to develop technology of interest to an expanded group of clients. We are expanding on our success in the application of state of the art imaging technologies to the evaluation of anti-cancer therapeutics, to enter new therapeutic areas such as autoimmunity and inflammation", Dr. McConville continued.
About MIR Preclinical Services
MIR is a contract research organization specializing in the application of state of the art, multimodality imaging technologies to the preclinical evaluation of novel drug candidates. The company boasts management with over 60 years of major pharma cancer drug discovery experience, and is a leader in the integration of traditional anti-cancer efficacy testing with clinically relevant imaging technologies to provide new insights to drug discovery and development. MIR offers a wide array of tumor models including human tumor xenograft, syngeneic, and transgenic models. The company is unique in its ability to apply state-of-the-art non-invasive imaging modalities including MRI, X-ray micro-CT, high resolution preclinical PET, in vivo bioluminescence and fluorescence imaging to visualize biological processes such as signal transduction, apoptosis and angiogenesis. MIR actively collaborates with leading scientists in academia in developing new drug evaluation technologies with a view to publication of results in peer reviewed journals.