The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a Phase 1 Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant to NeuroEM Therapeutics Inc to determine the optimal treatment parameters for a head device that uses electromagnetic waves to treat Alzheimer’s disease, and its potential for treating Parkinson’s disease and PTSD.
Phoenix-based NeuroEM Therapeutics Inc is collaborating on this research with Arizona State University researchers Dr Michael Sierks from the Department of Chemical Engineering, Dr Jeffrey Jager from the Magnetic Resonance Research Center, and Dr James Aberle from the Department of Electrical Engineering.
Clinical trials involving Alzheimer’s patients using the transcranial electromagnetic treatment (TEMT) head device developed by NeuroEM Therapeutics are testing the TEMT device settings that researchers suggest may have protected against and reversed memory impairment in mice with Alzheimer’s.
The Phase 1 SBIR grant will investigate if changes in various TEMT settings could result in even more benefit. The benefits will be determined by the TEMT device’s ability to break up small abnormal proteins (amyloid and tau oligomers) that are thought to initiate and propagate the Alzheimer’s disease process, notes a media release from NeuroEM Therapeutics Inc.
The collaborative trial is taking place at Banner Sun Health Research Institute and Banner Alzheimer Institute, both in Phoenix.
“Especially given the partnership between ASU and Phoenix-based Banner Health, the collaboration that NeuroEM Therapeutics has with both of these distinguished institutions could result in real therapeutic progress against the devastating memory impairment of Alzheimer’s Disease,” says Dr Gary Arendash, president and CEO of NeuroEM Therapeutics, in the release.
[Source(s): NeuroEM Therapeutics Inc, PR Newswire]
