Senator Collins Announces Jackson Laboratory to Receive Maine’s First ARPA-H Grant

Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health awards grants to support transformative biomedical breakthroughs

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Susan Collins announced today that The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) in Bar Harbor is the first-ever research institution in Maine to be awarded a grant from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). Specifically, JAX's grant of up to $30.6 million over three years was awarded through ARPA-H's Computational ADME-Tox and Physiology Analysis for Safer Therapeutics (CATALYST) program.

The CATALYST program supports research partners across the country and seeks to develop computer models that mimic real human biology to study the safety and effectiveness of Investigational New Drug (IND) candidates, helping to ensure more prompt approval of promising medicines.

This funding will support JAX's efforts to create digital heart models rooted in both mouse and human biology that reflect a wide range of human cardiovascular differences. These models will allow researchers to better predict the safety and effectiveness of drugs across many genetic backgrounds and physiological variations, thus reducing the need for early-stage clinical trials.

"ARPA-H seeks transformative biomedical breakthroughs happening all across the country to support with significant research funding. This more than $30 million grant is a testament to the incredible work happening at The Jackson Laboratory that has the potential to dramatically reduce the time and cost of drug development," said Senator Collins. "I have been so proud to watch The Jackson Laboratory grow so much throughout my service in the Senate and cannot wait to see and continue to support the exciting progress this new ARPA-H grant will bring."

Senator Collins has been a longtime supporter of The Jackson Laboratory and other research institutions in Maine through her role on the Senate Appropriations Committee. Since the return of Congressionally Directed Spending in 2021, Senator Collins has secured $11.5 million to support facility and equipment improvements at JAX, as well as construct a new facility for rare disease research. This funding allows JAX to continue to service biomedical researchers worldwide who require precision engineered and experimentally reliable models to advance understanding of human disease.?

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