Draper has been selected by the Advanced Research Projects
Agency for Health as an awardee of the Sprint for Women's Health, a
funding opportunity to address critical unmet challenges in women's
health, champion transformative innovations, and tackle health
conditions that uniquely or disproportionately affect women.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 6, 2024
/PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Draper has been selected by the Advanced
Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) as an awardee of the
Sprint for Women's Health, a funding opportunity to address
critical unmet challenges in women's health, champion
transformative innovations, and tackle health conditions that
uniquely or disproportionately affect women. Draper will receive
$3 million in funding over two years
through the Sprint for Women's Health spark track for early-stage
research efforts.
The goal of Draper's program is to address
the challenge of drug safety during pregnancy without needing to
test on pregnant women.
Over 200 million pregnancies occur each year worldwide. Many
pregnant women have medical conditions such as depression,
diabetes, high blood pressure, or infections for which medication
would be desired. However, more than 90% of FDA-approved drugs are
currently contraindicated for pregnancy, mostly because there are
insufficient data to make conclusions about safety for the
developing fetus.
The goal of Draper's program is to address the challenge of drug
safety during pregnancy without needing to test on pregnant women.
The Draper team, led by Principal Investigators Dr. Corin Williams and Dr. Hesham Azizgolshani, will use the ARPA-H award
to develop a bioengineered model of human pregnancy. Specifically,
Draper plans to create interacting tissue models of the placenta,
the unique organ that protects and nourishes the fetus, and a
developing heart model comprised of stem cell-derived
cardiomyocytes to represent a sensitive developing organ. Draper's
advanced capabilities in microphysiological systems will allow
testing of pregnancy-relevant medications in dozens of miniature
human pregnancy models at a time and determine if they are
safe.
"Healthy pregnancies affect all human life, so we believe that
many people will care about the outcome of our program," said
Corin Williams, Biomedical Engineer
and Principal Investigator. "Our vision is to use our developed
technology to test medications in the lab so that we don't have to
test on pregnant women, to provide safer options for these
patients."
"Draper's 90-year legacy of providing solutions for our nation
is something we are proud of," said John
Julias, acting vice president for Biotechnology Systems at
Draper. "Having an opportunity to create long-lasting healthcare
solutions for women is paramount, and we look forward to making an
impact."
ARPA-H's Sprint for Women's Health attracted a record number of
submissions across six topics in women's health. The initiative,
announced by First Lady Jill Biden
in February, marks the first major deliverable from the White House
Initiative on Women's Health Research.
The ARPA-H Sprint for Women's Health is conducted in
collaboration with the Investor Catalyst Hub of ARPANET-H, the
agency's nationwide health innovation network that connects people,
innovators, and institutions to accelerate better health outcomes
for everyone.
Over the next two years, Draper will work closely with ARPA-H
and the Investor Catalyst Hub to advance their solution.
About Draper
As a nonprofit engineering innovation company, Draper serves the
nation's interests and security needs; advances technologies at the
intersection of government, academia and industry; cultivates the
next generation of innovators; and solves the most complex
challenges. Multidisciplinary teams drawn from a broad and deep
talent pool of 1,600 engineers and scientists collaborate to
develop first-of-a-kind solutions. Draper's unbiased approach
enables the company to focus on their customers' needs and to
deliver new capabilities to them. Learn more at draper.com.
Media Contact
Scott Deitz, Draper, 1
336-908-7759, scott@sevenletter.com, Draper.com
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SOURCE Draper