Cooperative Agreement W81XWH0920022

This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases supports the development of a novel plant-based source for squalene as a natural vaccine adjuvant. The $514,006 award to Synshark LLC supports research to engineer tobacco plants to stably produce and accumulate squalene on their leaves. This work directly relates to the commercialization plan to provide a non-animal, indoor grown natural adjuvant for vaccines. Currently, squalene used in vaccines is...

This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems provides $500,000 to the Regents of the University of California at Riverside for research on rapid biomanufacturing of mRNA vaccines in plant chloroplasts. The award period is from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2023. The research is funded under the NSF Directorate for Engineering's 47.041 CFDA program, which aims to improve quality of life and economic strength...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Biological Sciences program provides $500,000 from March 2024 through February 2027 to researchers at the University of Maryland and Silvec Biologics, Inc. to develop methods to stabilize RNA genomes in viruses that can be used as therapies to treat plant diseases. The project aims to use computational approaches, including artificial intelligence, to design RNA structures that can be inserted into virus genomes to increase...

This Project Grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) under the Biomedical Research and Research Training Program (CFDA 93.859) provides $364,167 to Villanova University to develop novel non-viral gene delivery methods for cell therapies. The key objectives are: The Bracaglia Lab will develop new polymeric gene delivery vehicles to improve the delivery of siRNAs and other payloads to T cells and hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Drs. Elmer and Huang will...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084) provides $275,000 to Targeting Systems to develop a novel intramuscular gene delivery platform capable of sustained expression and endogenous secretion of bispecific natural killer cell engager (BIKE) therapeutics to treat solid tumors like hepatocellular carcinoma. The platform aims to deliver BIKEs in a less invasive manner than current immunotherapies,...

This federal Cooperative Agreement award of $228,637.00 from the United States Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care program (CFDA 10.025) aims to develop nano-enabled particle technologies to improve the delivery of therapeutic treatments for controlling plant endopathogens such as Liberibacter asiaticus and Xylella fastidiosa. The key goals and objectives of this 1-year project...

The University of Missouri System, under a $650,000 project grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program, is developing safe and effective live attenuated swine influenza vaccines using Newcastle disease virus (NDV) as the vector. The project aims to address the challenges with current swine influenza vaccines, which often fail to provide cross-protection against diverse virus strains. The key products and...

This $350,000 Project Grant award from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), under the 93.350 CFDA program, supports the development of the Codomax EPI-MAX platform. This integrated omics and computational technology leverages cellular stress responses to enhance the production of difficult-to-express therapeutic proteins, with a focus on improving secretion and preventing aggregation in the Pichia pastoris expression system. The key products or services to be...

This $300,000 Project Grant awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under CFDA 93.855 Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program aims to develop an anti-Candida peptide vaccine. The goal is to create a vaccine that can be used alone or as an adjunct to antifungal drugs to reduce fungal burden and morbidity due to life-threatening disseminated candidiasis, a common bloodstream infection in hospitalized patients. The project will utilize a novel...

This Project Grant award of $673,114 from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences Federal Grant Program (CFDA 47.074) supports a collaborative research project investigating the role of extracellular RNA (exRNA) produced by plants and its potential function in plant immune systems. The project aims to: 1) determine how plants secrete RNA and identify conserved exRNAs across diverse plant species, 2) assess whether post-transcriptional modifications are required for exRNA secretion,...