Company
Portfolio Data
Back to Company SearchZenobia Therapeutics, Inc.
UEI: LPJTA7TN4LS8
Number of Employees: 3
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: Yes
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
SBIR/STTR Involvement
Year of first award: 2009
5
Phase I Awards
1
Phase II Awards
20%
Conversion Rate
$1,657,878
Phase I Dollars
$1,000,000
Phase II Dollars
$2,657,878
Total Awarded
Awards
Sci-Quest: An Interactive Guided Hero's Journey through the Scientific Method to teach Core Scientific Concepts and Hands-on Skills to Underrepresented Populations in Science
Amount: $250,000 Topic: 91990025R0003
XplorStem Academy, developed with NSF Phase I and II funding, is a bilingual, interactive education technology platform designed to bridge the gap between high school and college-level STEM education. The platform combines TikTok-style videos, hands-on experiments, and guided scientific workflows to teach foundational concepts and laboratory skills. Piloted in three Title 1 schools with over 300 students, including 50% English learners, XplorStem Academy has demonstrated significant improvements in engagement and learning outcomes, including a 62% increase in comprehension of experiment-related concepts. The proposed Phase IB project will evolve XplorStem Academy into Sci-Quest, an AI-powered, gamified platform reimagining the scientific method through the Hero’s Journey framework. New components include 1) AI-driven games that dynamically reinforce vocabulary and key concepts, 2) Natural Language Processing tools providing real-time feedback to guide hypothesis formation, answer open-ended questions and conclusion writing, and 3) AI-augmented skills labs teaching critical laboratory techniques. These components address pilot-identified challenges, such as low engagement with writing tasks and repetitive research cycles, while maintaining the platform’s hands-on, interactive approach and augmenting re-enforcement of foundational knowledge. Sci-Quest will equip underserved students with the knowledge, confidence, and skills needed for STEM careers, ensuring accessible, engaging, and effective science education aligned with national standards.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2025
ED
IES
SBIR Phase II: A web-application that enables hands-on biotech laboratory education for students regardless of socioeconomic status
Amount: $1,000,000 Topic: LC
The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is equitable access to a quality science education regardless of socioeconomic status or geographic location. Across the nation, science illiteracy is an ongoing issue with only 30% of students testing as having a basic knowledge of science. As a result, the U.S. does not have enough trained scientists to commercial or academic laboratories. This situation has been deemed a national crisis and is considered a risk to U.S. national security. A quality science education has lasting benefits to students including more persuasive and clear communication skills, and the ability to design and develop critical approaches to problem-solving. The long-term goal of this program is to raise science literacy across the nation and provide career readiness training for the next generation of scientists. The program meets all three dimensions of Next Generation Science Standards. A book version of the program is being rolled-out to independent study charter schools in California. The online program will be tested in schools which have adopted the books.Both book and online versions will be expanded to charter schools, private schools, and eventually public schools. Modules of the program may be adopted in areas without access to high-speed internet._x000D_ _x000D_ This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project addresses inequities in science education by providing an independent study application that includes step-by-step instruction for a hands-on chemical laboratory. All hands-on laboratories use reagents commonly found in the home for safety and accessibility reasons. Experiments are designed to be done without the need for a trained science teacher in the room. Studies show that hands-on learning is more impactful than computer simulations. Low-cost scientific equipment is also being developed. A hand-powered spinning centrifuge is under final design. During Phase II, a drug discovery module will be developed where students can find a potential cure for a disease in their own kitchen or classroom. Aims also include modifying the online application to make it easily expandable, scalable and maintainable for the long term. The application development includes technical optimization for reliable deployment nationwide and new interfaces to allow educators to upload content directly into the application. The project also includes security audits of the application including user information. Financial information will be managed through a third-party application. The product will be iteratively tested in classrooms and homeschools._x000D_ _x000D_ 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.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2023
NSF
SBIR Phase I: XplorStem(TM): A smartphone/tablet application that enables hands-on biotech laboratory education for all students regardless of socioeconomic status
Amount: $225,000 Topic: EA
This SBIR Phase I project is focused on developing a mobile biotech laboratory for high schools. Education in biotech is limited from a practical point of view to schools with the funds to purchase expensive equipment and to train their teachers to use it. Kits including equipment and accompanying instructional materials are available in large biotech markets but require teacher training, purchase of materials and check-out and return of equipment. In this, instruction is limited to a few high schools in key biotech hubs. Our goal is to give every student in the country equal access to biotech training by building a laboratory in their pocket through the proposed product. Through use of mobile devices, a $100 tablet can replace thousands of dollars in laboratory equipment. Everything the student needs to complete their studies will be included in the app or through in-app purchases. Teacher training would be minimal because back-end validation of all reagent kits and accompanying gear is completed to make its use seamless and universally applicable. All accompanying information required for the teacher is provided including in-App assessment tools of student performance. The app may be downloaded by anyone in the country and gear/reagents rapidly shipped directly to the teacher?s classroom. Teachers in rural communities will have the same access as teachers in the wealthiest school districts. The project will focus on developing a web-based app with a back-end database that teaches hands-on biotech laboratory skills and concepts via discovery-based learning. The app includes an exploration lab module that simulates high-end scientific equipment, including a spectrophotometer and microscope that use the smart-phone camera. A second module takes students through various laboratory skills including micropipetting, use of microscope, and spectrophotometer. Students learn background and are led through practice and research activities resulting in a report. A third module uses guided discovery-based learning approaches to take students through the scientific method to a real-world research problem and adheres to all three dimensions of Next Generation Science Standards. Unit includes a study of milk digestion by the pancreas that features isolation of pancreatic proteases, drug discovery/natural product screening and quality control testing of commercially available enzyme supplements. In these explorations, students are not given answers. They must formulate hypothesis and do guided background research and ultimately perform hands-on experiments resulting in a final report. Student progress is captured in a back-end database and monitored by their instructor. Hardware such as micropipettes and attachments for phone/tablet will be designed and prepared through 3D printing. 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.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2019
NSF
I Corp Program fro HOT ROXS An integrated platform for identifying activators of non druggable targets
Amount: $397,750 Topic: 100
DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Enzyme activators are significantly underrepresented as therapeutic agents versus enzyme inhibitors There are only about a dozen examples of activator discovery in the scientific literature The lack of activator therapeutics is not from a ack of targets for diverse unmet medical needs Diseases such as neurodegeneration cancer and type diabetes could all benefit from an activator therapeutic This application introduces a new platform HOT ROXS for discovery of therapeutics for this class of andquot non druggableandquot targets HOT ROXS addresses three of the common issues in activator discovery a library rich in activators a generally applicable assay directed at activator identification and structural characterization of the activators to drive medicinal chemistry optimization of the hits To date most activator discovery has been through high throughput screening HTS HTS libraries are typically composed of large complex molecules Probability calculations indicate that complex molecules are much less likely to bind to a target than a smaller simpler compound fragments of drugs Furthermore the ligand binding efficiency binding energy per atom is typically much lower for HTS hits versus fragment hits This confounds medicinal chemistry optimization and can lead to flat SAR Here activators are defined as compounds that bind directly to the target of interest and stabilize it in the active conformation In HOT ROXS potential fragment activators are ideally identified as compounds that stabilize the active conformation of the protein by a positive shift in protein melting temperature In cases where the active conformation cannot be screened the inactive conformation is screened and the effect of activators on the melting temperature characterized early in the program by parallel activity screens Protein structure for the activators is initially measured in solution using Wide Angle X ray Scattering WAXS WAXS provides the molecular envelope for the protein ligand complex and is very sensitive to conformational shifts Changes as small as loop shifts can be detected by this method WAXS is used as part of an iterative process with single crystal x ray diffraction The initial x ray structure maybe apo or a ligand complex is fit to the WAXS pattern and changes upon activator binding identified The x ray structure may be remodeled to fit the new WAXS pattern WAXS is also very sensitive to conformational uniformity which is also a key characteristic for protein crystallization Activators are thought to increase the flexibility of proteins which would make crystallization of the complex more challenging So the WAXS pattern also identifies and prioritizes complexes for high throughput co crystallization studies WAXS may also identify different protein conformation classes which may streamline the co crystallization process or potentially provide for soaking of activators into pre formed crystals HOT ROXS has been used to identify activators for a high priority Parkinsonandapos s disease target and the method will be further developed and refined using this model system PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE HOT ROXS is a new platform to facilitate discovery of therapeutic agents that activate the target of interest rather than inhibit it The platform includs a chemical library method to identify activator leads and a method to determine their structure in complex with the protein target The method may also be applied to other target classes and is not dependent on the disease to be treated
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2016
HHS
NIH
Discovery of inhibitors of the lipopolysaccharide synthesis pathway enzymes LpxA
Amount: $456,299 Topic: NIAID
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Bacterial resistance to antibiotics has been an evolving problem since the dawn of the antibiotics era, requiring consistent scientific advances over the years in antibiotic discovery, epidemiological surveillance and infection control techniques to overcome the then-current clinical problem. One way to address resistance mechanisms is to attack the bacteria on many different fronts as has been done in the anti-viral field with HIV. However, unlike in the antiviral field, most commercial antibiotics were discovered many years ago and little advancement has been made in the discovery of novel therapeutics. This is even after the dawn of the genomics era when complete bacterial genomes were sequenced and unique enzymatic pathways identified. A multitude of targets have been screened by high-throughput screening methods to no avail. Recently, the reason for this high failure rate has been analyzed and conclusions drawn that traditional HTS libraries, designed to fit all disease indications, do not possess the properties required for anti-bacterial agents. Retrospective analysis reveal that in general successful antibacterial agents are more polar and larger than other drug molecules, and in fact, do not fit the criteria used to build most large HTS collections. Rather than re-building HTS libraries for antibacterial research which would be a tremendous and costly undertaking, in this proposal, we will use another method, fragment-based lead discovery, where fragments of drugs are screened rather than intact molecules. Because the compounds are smaller, the libraries need not be large or costly to assemble. Furthermore, as we find compounds that bind to our target and begin to increase the size of the fragments, we can design in antibiotic-friendly chemical properties at the same time we are building in potency. We are focusing on the bacterial cell wall synthesis pathway in gram negative bacteria, targeting two proteins: LpxA and LpxD. Both proteins are essential and because the cell wall can invoke resistance to some antibiotics, inhibitors may not only be therapeutic agents as a mono-therapy but could be co-dosed with existing resistant antibiotics. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Bacterial resistance to antibiotics has been an evolving problem since the dawn of the antibiotics era, requiring consistent scientific advances over the years in antibiotic discovery, epidemiological surveillance and infection control techniques to overcome the then-current clinical problem. We are addressing resistance mechanisms by finding inhibitors of bacterial cell wall synthesis in gram negative bacteria. We are targeting two proteins in the pathway: LpxA and LpxD using the method of fragment- based lead discovery. Traditional modern drug discovery methods have been largely unsuccessful in identifying antibacterial compounds primarily because we have been looking in the wrong place (in chemical space). Chemical properties of successful antibiotics have been identified and will be adhered to through the course of this study.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2010
HHS
NIH
Discovery of inhibitors of ALK for the treatment of cancer
Amount: $328,829
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our aim is to discover novel safety assessment candidates (pre-clinical compounds) for the treatment of cancer by targeting the receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK), anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK). It is now proven that ALK has a widespread pathogenic involvement in cancer through the expression of either constitutively activated fusion proteins or activating mutations, making this tyrosine kinase an important target for drug discovery research. Many of the forms of cancer associated with ALK are rare but have no effective forms of treatment available; some of these cancers such as neuroblastoma are primarily pediatric tumors and result in death for nearly all patients with them. Beyond these limited-population diseases, ALK fusions have now recently been associated with a subset of lung cancer, a malignancy that results in 1.18 million deaths per year worldwide. Since ALK is not broadly expressed in normal cells and ALK knockout mice have a normal life span and no discernible functional deficits, ALK inhibitors are expected to provide highly effective anticancer treatments with minimal side effects; this consideration will be of especial importance should a chronic treatment regimen be required for certain pediatric cancers. As an additional benefit, potent and selective ALK inhibitors will serve as important research tool compounds to assist in the characterization of the role of ALK in cancer as well as for further elucidation of the normal functions of ALK. Zenobia Therapeutics has identified low micromolar inhibitors of ALK that are ligand efficient fragments-of-drugs. During Phase I of this proposal, Zenobia will optimize these hits, complete the crystal structure of ALK, which is currently unknown, and identify additional lead series through the method of Fragment-Based Lead Discovery (FBLD). In addition to inhibiting WT-ALK, Zenobia will design compounds to inhibit resistant mutants identified in the laboratory of Dr. Stephen Morris of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. At the transition from Phase I to Phase II, two-three lead series will be chosen for additional optimization and the series that best meets the criteria of our target product profile, will progress into advanced lead optimization towards the goal of identifying compounds for pre-clinical, IND enabling studies. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: ALK is a kinase that has been implicated in a number of cancers including a number of pediatric cancers which are fatal and have no treatment. Because the pediatric patient population is relatively low, little work has been completed in identifying a clinical candidate that targets ALK. Recently, ALK mutations have been observed in lung cancer which results in over 1 million deaths per year. This has increased interest in ALK. We will be working with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital to find ALK inhibitors that may be used for limited population pediatric cancers and for lung cancer.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2009
HHS
NIH