Digestive Diseases News
Spring/Summer 2009

Small Business Grant Will Enable Researchers to Pursue Celiac Disease Treatments

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) has awarded a Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) grant, titled “Drug Engineering of Transglutaminase 2 Inhibitors,” to fund a collaboration between Chaitan Khosla, Ph.D., a Stanford University biochemical engineer, and Numerate, Inc., a California-based biotechnology company.

Transglutaminase 2 (TG2) is an enzyme that plays a key role in the biological process that causes gluten to trigger an immune response that damages the lining of the small intestine in people with celiac disease. The collaboration is an extension of Khosla’s research, which focuses on TG2 and celiac disease. Using techniques that allowed him to see the physical structure of TG2, Khosla found that the flexible molecule undergoes a substantial rearrangement in the early stages of the gluten-induced immune response.

“Very few proteins have been observed to undergo this type of large-scale transformation,” Khosla said. “Our results create a foundation for dissecting the process by which the autoantibody response to TG2 is induced in celiac disease patients.”

Khosla’s work makes it possible to see the TG2 structure on the scale of individual atoms. Numerate will use that structural information to develop candidate “inhibitors”—molecules that bind to specific TG2 sites and block the chain of biological events that leads to immune system damage to the intestine.

The NIDDK STTR program allows a small business to partner with a research institution on projects that will lead to a commercial product. More information about the program and other funding opportunities is available at www2.niddk.nih.gov/Funding.

The National Institutes of Health Celiac Disease Awareness Campaign provides current, comprehensive, science-based information about the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of celiac disease, also known as celiac sprue, nontropical sprue, and gluten-sensitive enteropathy. Learn more about celiac disease and the Awareness Campaign at www.celiac.nih.gov.

The NIDDK has fact sheets and easy-to-read booklets about celiac disease at www.digestive.niddk.nih.gov.

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NIH Publication No. 09–4552
July 2009