STXBP1 Foundation Awards Innovation Grant to Scott Baraban for High-throughput Drug Screen in Zebrafish

This study’s focus is the motor movement deficit seen in STXBP1 Disorder patients and recapitulated in stxbp1a mutant zebrafish.

The STXBP1 Foundation announces it has awarded a $100,000 Innovation Grant to Scott Baraban, PhD of University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Baraban is a Professor, Neurological Surgery and William K. Bowes Jr. Endowed Chair in Neuroscience Research at UCSF and Adjunct Professor at Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at UC Berkeley. His lab studies the cellular and molecular basis of epilepsy and has developed zebrafish models for multiple genetic epilepsies.

"Critical to the success of a high-risk high-reward research program is early funding support from private foundations.  With STXBP1 Foundation funding we can now embark on a zebrafish-based program to discover new drug candidates for these children" say Scott C. Baraban, PhD.

The title of Dr. Baraban’s grant is “Drug repurposing for STXBP1 Disorders”. As part of the grant work, Dr. Baraban’s lab will perform a large-scale screen of FDA approved drugs using an STXBP1 zebrafish model. The screen will focus on motor movement impairments that the STXBP1 zebrafish model exhibits, and utilize machine-learning based algorithms to detect and analyze zebrafish movement.

James R Goss, PhD, Scientific Director, STXBP1 Foundation adds, “Dr. Scott Baraban has contributed to STXBP1 research for many years, developing zebrafish models that reflect the seizure and motor symptoms of the disorder. These models are instrumental in efforts to develop and repurpose drugs for treating STXBP1-RD. We are delighted to support his work through one of our Innovation Grants and eagerly anticipate continuing our longstanding relationship”.

Learn more about Dr Baraban’s work here.

 The study will undertake a large-scale phenotypic drug screening in zebrafish