Novoron Bioscience Awarded $2.5 Million NIH/NIA SBIR Grant to Accelerate Alzheimer's Drug Discovery with Human Brain Organoids

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Novoron Bioscience, a San Diego-based biotechnology company developing therapies for neurodegenerative diseases and neurological injury, has received a $2.5 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health. The award will support the development and commercialization of Novoron's human brain organoid platform. The system is designed to identify potential Alzheimer's drugs that can slow or stop disease progression by blocking the spread of tau between cells.

Many Alzheimer's programs fail because traditional laboratory models cannot reflect the complexity of the human brain. Novoron's platform uses human iPSC-derived cortical organoids that capture realistic cell interactions and synaptic networks. This creates a more predictive setting for early drug discovery and helps narrow the field to compounds with a greater chance of clinical success.

The new funding will accelerate several planned milestones:

• Validate a high-throughput organoid screening platform with functional and molecular readouts relevant to tau spread.
  
  
• Run a benchmarking screen to test approximately 3,096 FDA-approved compounds for their ability to limit tau propagation.
  
  
• Apply transcriptomic and AI-supported analyses to rank compounds based on efficacy and safety signals.

"This award allows us to put human biology at the center of Alzheimer's drug discovery," said Travis Stiles, PhD, CEO and CSO of Novoron Bioscience. "Our organoid platform gives us a more reliable way to identify compounds that interrupt tau spread. We aim to generate clear, translatable data that supports rapid advancement into IND-enabling studies."

Novoron's organoid system supports true high-throughput screening in a 384-well format. This approach helps reduce early development risk by focusing attention on candidates that behave well in models with greater biological relevance than standard 2D cultures or animal studies.

A central component of the program involves LRP1 (Low-Density Lipoprotein Receptor-Related Protein 1), which plays an important role in synaptic tau propagation. Novoron has shown that its LRP1 antagonist NOVO118 can reduce tau spread. The company has also identified a druggable binding pocket within LRP1 that supports the design of selective small-molecule inhibitors. These findings give Novoron a strong foundation for building targeted Alzheimer's therapeutics.

The project was awarded under Grant Number R44AG097355 in September 2025. The company expects to reach key inflection points over the course of the award, including full platform validation, identification of lead candidates, and creation of data packages suitable for investor due diligence and pharmaceutical partnering.

About Novoron Bioscience
Novoron Bioscience, Inc. is a San Diego-based biotechnology company developing therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases and neurological injury. Novoron focuses on pathways within the low-density lipoprotein receptor family, including LRP1, with the goal of restoring function and slowing disease progression in conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, tauopathies, and spinal cord injury. For more information, visit novoron.com.

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SOURCE Novoron Bioscience