Duo Oncology Awarded Prestigious NIH Grant to Advance Innovative Nanomedicine for Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer and Other Malignancies.

NIH STTR Award Funds Additional Studies Exploring Improved Duration of Treatment with DUO-207 in Mice and Dogs.

PITTSBURGH (PRWEB) December 12, 2024 – Duo Oncology, an oncologist-founded startup building a stronger, safer foundation for cancer medicine is proud to announce that it has received a Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). This award will support the continued development of DUO-207, an ultrasmall nanomedicine that seeks to replace two widely-used, toxic chemotherapies. DUO-207 is designed to treat metastatic solid tumors including pancreatic cancer, which has one of the lowest survival rates among all cancer types.

The NCI's STTR grant recognizes the groundbreaking potential of DUO-207 to improve pancreatic cancer outcomes while reducing the debilitating side effects associated with conventional therapies. Pancreatic cancer affects over 495,000 people annually worldwide, and most patients are diagnosed at late stages when tumors are inoperable. In toxicology studies, DUO-207’s combination of gemcitabine and paclitaxel reduced symptoms of nausea and weight loss compared to the standard of care in both rats and dogs.

“This NIH STTR grant is a critical milestone in advancing DUO-207 toward clinical trials,” said Dr. Sam Rothstein, CEO of Duo Oncology. “This award validates the innovative potential of our approach to building a new foundation for cancer medicine.  These funds will support continued studies that explore the duration of DUO-207’s action, which is significantly longer than standard treatments.”

The NIH STTR program is designed to foster collaboration between small businesses and research institutions to accelerate the development of high-impact medical technologies. Duo Oncology will partner with Dr. Song Li at the University of Pittsburgh, a leading academic researcher and co-inventor of DUO-207 to carry out the preclinical studies that will inform DUO-207 clinical trial development.

For more information about Duo Oncology and the development of DUO-207, please visit DuoOncology.com.

Research described in this publication was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R41CA278033. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.