STTR in practice · NIH · Phase I
Antibody drug candidates for hearing loss
Public award record. INSTAR Lab was not involved. This is a federal award made to another organisation. INSTAR Lab did not apply for it, take part in it or contribute to it, and nothing here says otherwise.
A biotechnology company used antibody-generation technology developed with a research institute to look for antibodies that switch on a nerve-growth receptor in the inner ear. The aim was to find candidate drugs for hearing loss caused by damage to hearing nerve cells. The Phase I work selects, characterises and tests candidates in mouse nerve cells.
The problem
The record says there is no effective drug for sensorineural hearing loss and that the natural growth protein is a poor medicine on its own, so the company proposed antibodies as a better route.
Partners and roles
Roles are summarised from the record’s own description. Work shares are not given unless noted.
Zebra Biologics, Inc.
Small business
The small business. The record says it holds the antibody technology and has generated pools of candidate antibodies.
The Scripps Research Institute
Research institution
Named in the record as the collaborator with which the company developed its antibody technology.
What the record does not say
- Whether the record counts the institute as the formal STTR research partner for the Phase I work beyond this collaboration.
- The share of work each partner carried.
- Any result or outcome of the project.
Phase and timeline
- Starts
- September 10, 2019
- Ends
- October 1, 2022
- Length
- About 37 months
- Agency
- National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
- Award number
- 1R41DC018250-01
- Amount
- $304,258. Fiscal year 2019 award amount shown in NIH RePORTER for this project number.
- Dates
- September 10, 2019 to October 1, 2022, as the record lists them
Outcome
The record does not state an outcome, so none is given here.
Source
Official record: NIH RePORTER project record 9846470(official title: Discovery of TrkC agonist antibodies for hearing loss). Checked October 23, 2026. Details can change after that date; the official record is the authority.
INSTAR Lab has not yet held an STTR award. This page describes how another organisation’s award is set out in public records. It does not suggest INSTAR Lab took part, or that it would be eligible for or win similar funding.