# Microglia models for Alzheimer's disease drug screening

> **NIH NIH R43** · PHENOVISTA BIOSCIENCES, LLC · 2021 · $249,900

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a late-onset neurodegenerative disease marked by a progressive loss of memory
and other cognitive functions, resulting in profound dementia. AD is the most common late-onset dementia
affecting millions of people in the developed countries of the world and the AD population predicted to reach
130 million by 2050. There has been a concerted effort to identify the mechanism of disease, development of
models and therapeutics. In AD and other neurodegenerative diseases, the observations of uncontrolled
chronic inflammatory pathology in the CNS and genetic associations of immune pathways have implicated the
microglia. The microglia are the key immune cells in the CNS which provide immunesurveillance, secrete
inflammatory molecules, and clear cell debris from the extracellular space. In AD, there is an uncoupling of
microglial activation and phagocytosis functions suggesting that these cells are targets for AD drug discovery.
Recently, human iPS-derived microglia (iMGLs) models have started to become available. Therefore, the
overall goal of this multi-phase SBIR project is to develop, validate, and commercialize an in vitro high
throughput, high content functional suite of AD iMGLs assays with the Phenovista’s proprietary culture
screening system. These assays will allow for a next-generation in vitro system for ranking the relative efficacy
of AD microglial based therapies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10156247
- **Project number:** 1R43AG071341-01
- **Recipient organization:** PHENOVISTA BIOSCIENCES, LLC
- **Principal Investigator:** Anthony Weber Essex
- **Activity code:** R43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $249,900
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-02-01 → 2021-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10156247

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10156247, Microglia models for Alzheimer's disease drug screening (1R43AG071341-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10156247. Licensed CC0.

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