C-Path’s Translational Therapeutics Accelerator Announces $200,000 Grant for Drug Development Project in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

TUCSON, Ariz., and CLEVELAND, Ohio — Critical Path Institute’s® (C-Path) Translational Therapeutics Accelerator (TRxA) proudly announced today a $200,000 grant to Carlos Subauste, MD, an internist and infectious disease specialist at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and professor at Case Western Reserve University, to advance a promising new therapy for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

IBD — a chronic and often debilitating condition affecting more than 2.4 million Americans, with approximately 70,000 new diagnoses each year — causes ongoing inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, resulting in severe abdominal pain, weight loss, and irreversible damage to intestinal tissue.

In addressing the inflammation associated with IBD, many current and investigational treatments suppress the immune system, leaving patients vulnerable to serious, sometimes life-threatening infections. Dr. Subauste’s work represents a first-in-class approach, selectively disrupting a pro-inflammatory signaling branch that helps determine specific types of immune responses, involving a protein known as CD40. This innovative approach modulates the inflammatory response without affecting immune-protective pathways. This strategy aims to maximize therapeutic impact while minimizing infection risk — a key limitation of current IBD therapies.

“CD40 is a major driver of inflammation in IBD,” said Dr. Subauste. “By selectively blocking the CD40–TRAF2 pathway, we can suppress harmful inflammation while preserving the body’s natural defense against infection.”

Dr. Subauste’s team has already identified potent small-molecule inhibitors with promising potency (at the nanomolar level) in cells and is currently progressing through early-stage drug lead optimization. The next stage of the project will refine these leads and prepare for preclinical development with the ultimate goal of bringing a safer, more effective therapy for IBD to patients in need. This therapeutic approach also has the potential for application to other CD40-driven diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, lupus, Sjogren’s syndrome and diabetes.

The project is being supported by TRxA, a C-Path program that provides targeted funding and strategic support to help academic researchers advance high-potential therapeutic candidates into the clinic.

“C-Path is proud to support Dr. Subauste’s innovative work targeting CD40–TRAF2 signaling,” said Maaike Everts, PhD, Executive Director of TRxA. “This program represents the kind of science that TRxA was created to advance, addressing validated disease targets with smarter, safer mechanisms that can improve outcomes for patients.”