Project Grant R43AI149815

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) awarded Lynntech Inc. a $283,304 Project Grant under the Biomedical Research and Research Training Program (CFDA 93.859) to develop software that optimizes the replication of self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) for use in vaccines and therapeutics. The goal is to create machine learning-based software that can enhance the replicability of saRNA, which can increase the duration of protein expression from saRNA cargo compared to conventional mRNA....

This National Science Foundation Project Grant of $255,927 awarded to Invvax, Inc. on March 1, 2022 seeks to develop stable prophylactic antibodies through February 2023. Funded through the NSF Engineering Directorate's CFDA 47.041 program, this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will engineer mutations to antibody Fc regions to resist degradation and enhance binding to the neonatal Fc receptor for potentially decades-long duration. Specifically, the awardee will combine known...

This Project Grant award of $161,500.00 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research Federal Grant Program (CFDA 93.855) aims to develop a stable mRNA prophylactic vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. The awardee, The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, will apply its "RNA-Plex" technology, which uses a polymer-based carrier to stabilize mRNA molecules and enhance their translation in cells, to...

This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program totaling $256,000 will develop Recombinant BCG as a novel immunoadjuvant for viral infections. The awardee, Oncosting LLC located in Baltimore, Maryland, will optimize media and lyophilization manufacturing of BCG-STING, evaluate its immunological effects as an adjuvant for H1N1 influenza vaccination, and assess its protective effects as an H1N1 vaccine adjuvant. By adding stimulator of...

This federal Project Grant award of $883,864 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) supports research to develop a thermostable measles fusion (F) glycoprotein vaccine strategy. The key objectives are to engineer a thermostable measles F protein immunogen and evaluate the protective immune responses it elicits, with the goal of creating a vaccine that is safe and effective for...

This Project Grant award, totaling $390,942.00, was provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research Federal Grant Program (CFDA 93.855). The goal of the project is to use self-assembled protein nanocages (SAPNs) as a universal flu vaccine platform to enhance the effectiveness of influenza vaccines. Specifically, the SAPNs will present multiple copies of three highly conserved influenza antigens: trimeric...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded a $300,000 grant under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program to Oklahoma State University (OSU) to develop a novel single-cycle vaccine against bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV). The project aims to pioneer the development of two single-cycle BRSV vaccine prototypes: an 'MNull' vaccine that lacks the essential matrix protein, and a 'PRef' vaccine with a modified fusion protein. OSU will evaluate the immunogenicity...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) program (CFDA 47.084) aims to advance a novel vaccine platform to develop engineered vaccines that provide longer-lasting protection against infectious diseases. The $304,438 award to Nitro Biosciences Inc. will be used to overcome immune imprinting, a limitation in vaccine development where prior exposure to pathogens biases immune responses away from protective targets. The...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CFDA 47.049) Federal Grant Program provides $599,999 to Duke University for a project titled "Challenges in Stochastic Modeling and Computation for Sequential Vaccine Design." The project aims to address technical challenges in computational modeling of the stochastic immune system in order to improve methods for estimating the probability of inducing broadly protective...

This federal Project Grant award of $4,630,686 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (CFDA 93.855 - Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research) supports research to develop an effective HIV vaccine. The primary goal is to stimulate B cell lineages capable of producing broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) against diverse HIV strains, a key challenge in traditional vaccine approaches. The research involves preclinical studies in non-human primates using the BG505...