Function Therapeutics, a firm performing medicinal chemistry and pharmacology at UWM since June 2022, recently received a Phase 1 SBIR award from the National Science Foundation.

Trevor Hageman (left), CEO Chris Dockendorff (middle), Will Daugherty (right)

The grant, Structure-guided design of anti-inflammatory modulators of protease-activated receptor 1 (PAR1), will support structural biology and medicinal chemistry studies to support the design and development of novel anti-inflammatories, called parmodulins. Function Therapeutics is supported in part by Medicinal Chemist and recent UWM Ph.D. graduate Trevor Hagemann and Research Associate Will Daugherty who is a recent UWM B.S. graduate. The grant will also support work from the lab of Marvin Nieman at Case Western Reserve University. The parmodulins under development at Function Therapeutics are being studied in numerous indications related to thromboinflammation, including kidney injury and diabetic kidney disease.