NIH-funded research Sbir 2 grant

Metabolomics-Driven Drug Discovery Platform for Better Medicines

Official title: Development and Validation of Data Standards and Computational Methods for Large Scale Metabolomics Data Analysis for Data Driven Drug Discovery

Funded at Sinopia Biosciences, INC. · NIH-11316610 · Data updated 2026-11-12

A research project aims to create and validate a new metabolomics-based method to help discover and optimize drugs using advanced AI and high-throughput data.

Quick facts

Grant typeSbir 2 grant
Study typeNIH-funded research
Funding institutionSinopia Biosciences, INC.
NIH-funded
Lab location1 site (San Diego, United States)
Project startMay 1, 2024
Project endAugust 31, 2028
Funding year2026
Award (this year)$1,477,110
NIH project number2R44GM154585-02
Project IDNIH-11316610 on NIH RePORTER

Who could benefit from this research

Could help

Not a patient-facing trial; however, insights from the platform could eventually impact drugs relevant to human diseases.

Less likely to help

No direct patient participation is expected in this grant.

What this research studies

This project combines cutting-edge metabolomics with machine learning to analyze how small molecules affect biological systems. Researchers at Sinopia Biosciences and Omix Technologies developed a platform called metD4 to profile thousands of compounds across many proteins, aiming to predict how drugs work and what side effects they might have. They built a neural network-based representation to compare data across experiments, addressing past problems with inconsistent measurements. If successful, the work could streamline drug discovery and improve translation to patients.

Why it matters

Potential benefit: Could lead to faster, more accurate identification of promising drug candidates and better prediction of safety signals.

How similar studies have gone: Preliminary analyses suggest metabolomics can outperform transcriptomics in predicting drug properties, but broader validation is ongoing.

Where this research is happening

  • Sinopia Biosciences, INC.
    San Diego, United States
    Active

Researchers

  • Principal investigator: Bloem, Bernard — Sinopia Biosciences, INC.
  • Study coordinator: Bloem, Bernard

Related research

Other NIH-funded projects on the same topics.

About this research

  1. This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
  2. Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
  3. For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.
Last reviewed 2026-11-14 by the Find a Trial editorial team. Information on this page is for educational purposes and is not medical advice. Always consult qualified healthcare professionals about clinical trial participation.