STTR Phase I: Anti-scarring Therapies for Vocal Fold Injury

Award ID: 2605017

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is significant, and successful commercialization will provide significant clinical benefits to millions of patients with vocal fold injuries in the United States each year, improving communication, employability, community participation, mental health and quality of life. Importantly, the product provides anti-scarring efficacy to help patients to achieve fewer interventions, shorter hospital stays, fewer complications, and lower overall costs. This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project addresses the difficulty of restoring vocal fold micro-architecture by developing a treatment for voice injury. Injury factors include surgery, overuse, trauma, radiation, intubation, reflux, and infection. Vocal fold fibrosis leads to chronic dysphonia, currently with no approved therapy to restore the needed micro-architecture. The goal of this Phase I project is to develop a scalable, potency-verified vocal fold therapy with a proven safety profile and antifibrotic effects in large animals. To address this need, the team developed a vocal fold therapy, which inhibits TGF-1driven fibrosis and has the potential to provide a pro-healing environment to restore vocal fold function. Expected outcomes of this proposal include a scalable solution of anti-fibrotic vocal fold therapy with verified stability and reproducible potency and dose-dependent efficacy and safety in a large laryngeal injury model. This grant will significantly reduce the risks associated with this unique platform, designed specifically for the vocal fold, and prepare for future grant applications. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Henry Ahn