Centrose lands $150K federal grant

Madison, Wis. - It is becoming increasingly clear that sugars play key roles in human health and disease, and the federal government is emphasizing that point with grant funding.

The latest beneficiaries are Centrose, LLC and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They have received an additional $150,000 in funding from the National Science Foundation to support a joint effort to improve drug discovery.

Centrose, which is developing a pharmaceutical product that improves the efficacy of cancer-fighting drugs by adding novel sugars, will use its share of the funds to expand its sugar chemistry. Meanwhile, UW-Madison will use funds to optimize the biochemistry behind the associated sugar-attachment process.

Centrose has exclusively licensed a set of drug-enhancement technologies from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation that use sugars to lower toxic effects and increase drug potency. Since entering that licensing agreement, the company has raised more than $1 million in private funding and has received another $500,000 in federal grant funding.

Related stories • Three technology companies qualify for investor credits

• Centrose receives $160K for anti-cancer program

• Centrose lands $875K, seeks $3 million in total capital