SBIR-STTR Award

Vaccines have saved millions of lives. However, there are many diseases against which vaccines are notyet available, with the current COVID-19 pandemic in the world serving as a painful reminder of the need forvaccines against emerging diseases. With the growing emphasis on vaccine safety, next-generation vaccinedesigns have been increasingly focusing on subunit antigens. Because subunit epitopes tend to have lowerimmunogenicity, immunogenic carriers are critical to deliver the desired antigen to the immune system and toenhance the immune responses. However, there are very few carriers available that have been validated inclinical studies. In this SBIR phase I project, Iaso Therapeutics, Inc. will focus on the development of a proprietarybacteriophage mutant Qβ (mQβ) virus like particle as a platform technology for conjugate vaccines. In aim 1,robust protocols will be established for expression, purification, and long-term storage of mQβ. In addition, headto head comparison will be performed to demonstrate that mQβ can elicit higher levels of antibodies as comparedto current benchmark carriers. In aim 2, the powerful mQβ platform will be applied to deliver Salmonellaassociated glycans as potential vaccines against multiple strains of common pathogenic Salmonella. Thevaccine will be optimized to enhance protection from Salmonella infection. When successfully developed, thisproject will establish mQβ as an attractive immunogenic carrier for vaccine development and provide importantpre-clinical data for anti-Salmonella vaccines. Project narrative Vaccines have had tremendous benefits to our society, saving millions of lives. Immunogenic carriers are critical to boosting the immune responses to conjugate vaccines. In this project, a genetically engineered bacteriophage Qβ will be established as a new vaccine carrier, the power of which will be demonstrated in the development of an effective new anti-Salmonella vaccine. Antibodies ; Epitopes ; Antigenic Determinants ; Binding Determinants ; Antigens ; immunogen ; Bacteriophages ; Phages ; bacterial virus ; Biotechnology ; Biotech ; Malignant Neoplasms ; Cancers ; Malignant Tumor ; malignancy ; neoplasm/cancer ; Carbohydrates ; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) ; CDC ; Centers for Disease Control ; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ; United States Centers for Disease Control ; United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ; Clinical Research ; Clinical Study ; Communicable Diseases ; Infectious Disease Pathway ; Infectious Diseases ; Infectious Disorder ; Cessation of life ; Death ; Disease ; Disorder ; Drug resistance ; drug resistant ; resistance to Drug ; resistant to Drug ; Food Poisoning ; Future ; Genetic Engineering ; Genetic Engineering Biotechnology ; Genetic Engineering Molecular Biology ; Recombinant DNA Technology ; genetically engineered ; Health ; Helper-Inducer T-Lymphocyte ; Helper Cells ; Helper T-Cells ; Helper T-Lymphocytes ; Helper-Inducer T-Cells ; Inducer Cells ; Inducer T-Lymphocytes ; Human ; Modern Man ; Immunoglobulin G ; 7S Gamma Globulin ; IgG ; Immune system ; allergic/immunologic body system ; allergic/immunologic organ system ; Incidence ; Infection ; Michigan ; Mus ; Mice ; Mice Mammals ; Murine ; Pain ; Painful ; Polysaccharides ; Glycans ; Production ; Safety ; Salmonella ; Salmonella infections ; Salmonellosis ; Salmonella paratyphi ; S enterica serovar Paratyphi A ; S paratyphi ; S. enterica serovar Paratyphi A ; S. paratyphi ; Salmonella enterica serovar Paratyphi A ; Salmonella paratyphi A ; Salmonella typhi ; S enterica serovar Typhi ; S typhi ; S typhosa ; S. enterica serovar Typhi ; S. typhi ; S. typhosa ; Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi ; Salmonella typhosa ; Salmonella typhimurium ; S enterica serovar Typhimurium ; S typhimurium ; S. enterica Typhimurium ; S. enterica serovar Typhimurium ; S. typhimurium ; Salmonella enterica Typhimurium ; Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium ; Savings ; Societies ; Vertebral column ; Spinal Column ; Spine ; backbone ; Technology ; Universities ; Vaccines ; cross reacting material 197 ; CRM-197 ; CRM197 ; analytical method ; base ; Clinical ; Phase ; Conjugate Vaccines ; Licensing ; Multi-Drug Resistance ; Multidrug Resistance ; Multiple Drug Resistance ; Multiple Drug Resistant ; Resistance to Multi-drug ; Resistance to Multidrug ; Resistance to Multiple Drug ; Resistant to Multiple Drug ; Resistant to multi-drug ; Resistant to multidrug ; multi-drug resistant ; multidrug resistant ; Chemosensitization ; Chemosensitization/Potentiation ; Potentiation ; Intellectual Property ; T-Lymphocyte Epitopes ; T-Cell Epitopes ; Immunological response ; host response ; immune system response ; immunoresponse ; Immune response ; Therapeutic ; tool ; E coli O157 ; E. coli O157 ; Escherichia coli O157 ; fighting ; Immunes ; Immune ; Protocol ; Protocols documentation ; System ; Best Practice Analysis ; Benchmarking ; EHEC ; Enterohemorrhagic E coli ; Enterohemorrhagic E. coli ; Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli ; Enterohemorrhagic strain of E coli ; Enterohemorrhagic strain of E. coli ; Enterohemorrhagic strain of Escherichia coli ; Shiga toxigenic E. coli ; Shiga toxigenic Escherichia coli ; Shiga toxin containing E. coli ; Shiga toxin containing Escherichia coli ; Shiga toxin producing E. coli ; Shiga toxin secreting E. coli ; Shiga toxin secreting Escherichia coli ; Shiga toxin-producing E coli ; Shiga toxin-producing E. coli ; Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli ; Shiga toxin-secreting E. coli ; Shiga-toxigenic E. coli ; Shiga-toxin containing E. coli ; Escherichia coli EHEC ; biocompatibility ; biomaterial compatibility ; mutant ; Salmonellosis Vaccines ; Salmonella Vaccines ; develop a vaccine ; development of a vaccine ; vaccine formulation ; vaccine development ; novel ; Negotiating ; Negotiation ; Mediation ; Cell surface ; immunogenic ; Pathogenicity ; virus-like nanoparticles ; viruslike particle ; Virus-like particle ; Address ; Reproducibility ; Antigen Targeting ; Clinical Data ; Small Business Innovation Research Grant ; SBIR ; Small Business Innovation Research ; Vaccine Antigen ; Vaccine Design ; Pathologic ; Characteristics ; Process ; Development ; developmental ; pre-clinical ; preclinical ; foodborne illness ; food-born illness ; food-borne disease ; food-borne illness ; foodborn illness ; foodborne disease ; vaccine efficacy ; immunogenicity ; design ; designing ; next generation ; vaccine safety ; novel vaccines ; new vaccines ; next generation vaccines ; mouse model ; murine model ; vaccine candidate ; protective efficacy ; head-to-head comparison ; head-to-head analysis ; Antibody Response ; Immunize ; side effect ; COVID-19 pandemic ; COVID crisis ; COVID epidemic ; COVID pandemic ; COVID-19 crisis ; COVID-19 epidemic ; COVID-19 global health crisis ; COVID-19 global pandemic ; COVID-19 health crisis ; COVID-19 public health crisis ; COVID19 crisis ; COVID19 epidemic ; COVID19 global health crisis ; COVID19 global pandemic ; COVID19 health crisis ; COVID19 pandemic ; COVID19 public health crisis ; SARS-CoV-2 epidemic ; SARS-CoV-2 global health crisis ; SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic ; SARS-CoV-2 pandemic ; SARS-CoV2 epidemic ; SARS-CoV2 pandemic ; SARS-coronavirus-2 epidemic ; SARS-coronavirus-2 pandemic ; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoV 2 epidemic ; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoV 2 pandemic ; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 epidemic ; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic ; corona virus disease 2019 epidemic ; corona virus disease 2019 pandemic ; coronavirus disease 2019 crisis ; coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic ; coronavirus disease 2019 global health crisis ; coronavirus disease 2019 global pandemic ; coronavirus disease 2019 health crisis ; coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic ; coronavirus disease 2019 public health crisis ; coronavirus disease crisis ; coronavirus disease epidemic ; coronavirus disease pandemic ; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 global health crisis ; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 global pandemic ; vaccine access ; access to vaccination ; access to vaccines ; vaccination access ; vaccination availability ; vaccine availability ;

Vaccines have saved millions of lives. However, there are many diseases against which vaccines are notyet available, with the current COVID-19 pandemic in the world serving as a painful reminder of the need forvaccines against emerging diseases. With the growing emphasis on vaccine safety, next-generation vaccinedesigns have been increasingly focusing on subunit antigens. Because subunit epitopes tend to have lowerimmunogenicity, immunogenic carriers are critical to deliver the desired antigen to the immune system and toenhance the immune responses. However, there are very few carriers available that have been validated inclinical studies. In this SBIR phase I project, Iaso Therapeutics, Inc. will focus on the development of a proprietarybacteriophage mutant Qβ (mQβ) virus like particle as a platform technology for conjugate vaccines. In aim 1,robust protocols will be established for expression, purification, and long-term storage of mQβ. In addition, headto head comparison will be performed to demonstrate that mQβ can elicit higher levels of antibodies as comparedto current benchmark carriers. In aim 2, the powerful mQβ platform will be applied to deliver Salmonellaassociated glycans as potential vaccines against multiple strains of common pathogenic Salmonella. Thevaccine will be optimized to enhance protection from Salmonella infection. When successfully developed, thisproject will establish mQβ as an attractive immunogenic carrier for vaccine development and provide importantpre-clinical data for anti-Salmonella vaccines.

Public Health Relevance Statement:
Project narrative Vaccines have had tremendous benefits to our society, saving millions of lives. Immunogenic carriers are critical to boosting the immune responses to conjugate vaccines. In this project, a genetically engineered bacteriophage Qβ will be established as a new vaccine carrier, the power of which will be demonstrated in the development of an effective new anti-Salmonella vaccine.

Project Terms:
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