Constantiam lands $2.5M NIH grant to scale Alzheimer's risk test
What's the deal? Constantiam BiosciencesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has received a roughly $2.5 million Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute on AgingDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → to commercialize its MAVEvidence platform. The Watertown, Massachusetts-based company will spend the funds over two years.
What's the endgame? MAVEvidence is a computational platform that curates multiplexed assays of variant effect (MAVE) datasets, helping researchers and clinicians interpret genetic variants tied to Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. By automating evidence generation, the company aims to enable earlier intervention.
Where the money goes: The grant will expand MAVEvidence to at least 25 risk genes, curating a minimum of 100 relevant MAVE studies. Constantiam will also build tools for data curation and quality control, and validate the platform in real-world clinical genetic testing.
Why now? The award follows a $485,000 Phase I SBIR grant in 2024 and a $2.05 million Phase II grant from the National Human Genome Research InstituteDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. "Phase I was about proving the concept on a small set of genes, while Phase II is about scaling to a commercial product and validating it with end users in the field," said cofounder Norman Ong.
What else? Constantiam recently signed a licensing deal with Cincinnati Children's Medical CenterDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → to advance small-molecule treatments for neuronopathic Gaucher disease. That work uses the company's RareScan functional genomics platform to match therapeutic candidates to patient genotypes.
The signal: At $2.5 million, the grant sits in the 35th percentile by amount — modest capital, but non-dilutive federal funding that lets a small diagnostics firm scale toward a commercial product without giving up equity.
Read more: genomeweb.com
Image credit: Constantiam Biosciences
