Project Grant R44AI129149

This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), under the Biomedical Research and Research Training Program (CFDA 93.859), aims to develop an improved low-endotoxin E. coli strain for the production of biological products. The $842,151 award to Scarab Genomics LLC, located in Madison, Wisconsin, will fund the development of a versatile next-generation E. coli strain using the company's proprietary "Clean Genome" platform. The goal is to...

This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), provides $2,178,000 to develop a "tunable nanophage platform" for rapid vaccine development against emerging infectious disease threats, including SARS-CoV-2 variants and pre-emergent SARS-like coronaviruses. The key products and services to be delivered include: 1) Engineering "second generation" nanophages...

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 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), provides $400,000 in funding to support pre-clinical studies aimed at developing a vaccine against extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC). ExPEC is a leading cause of antibiotic-resistant infections worldwide, with no FDA-approved vaccine currently available. The research team at Baylor College of Medicine, the award...

The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded a $300,000 Project Grant under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) to Vellum Biosciences LLC, a for-profit limited liability company located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The funding supports the development of a GMP-compliant (Good Manufacturing Practice) E. coli dihydrofolate reductase (EDHFR) viral vector that can be used to monitor the biodistribution and trafficking of...

Codomax Inc., a biotechnology company, received a $350,000 Project Grant award from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) under CFDA Program 93.350. The funding supports Codomax's research and development to optimize antibody production in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells using its proprietary EPI-MAX technology platform. The project aims to enhance heavy and light chain expression by analyzing tRNA systems that limit antibody production and re-engineering the CREB1...

The University of Florida received a three-year, $635,000 Project Grant award from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program. The grant will fund research to develop significantly improved genetically engineered Salmonella vaccine vectors that synthesize and deliver multiple protective antigens from Eimeria maxima and E. tenella parasites. This aims to induce protective...

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 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), provides $883,864 to The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York to develop a thermostable measles fusion (F) protein as a new vaccine strategy. The key objectives are to 1) engineer a thermostable measles F protein immunogen, and 2) evaluate the protective immune response elicited by this stabilized F...

This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Biomedical Research and Research Training Program (CFDA 93.859) provides $295,924 to Chesapeake Genomic Systems, LLC to develop an efficient, bacteria-independent workflow to produce completely vectorless supercoiled DNA (vlsDNA) molecules. The objectives are to optimize reaction conditions for a new DNA assembly technology called Cyclic Heteroduplex Thermostable Ligation Assembly (CHTLA) to maximize...