Our Areas of Interest

OUR AREAS OF INTEREST

	Vaccines

Viral, bacterial, fungal, and parasitic vaccine candidates in targeted areas of high medical need/high incidence
- Must have robust preclinical immunogenicity and safety data
- Efficacy in a relevant preclinical model where one exists
- Clinical POC an advantage but not required
- Must be amenable to production in a platform acceptable for human use and to scalable production
HIV
- Novel immunogens that elicit broadly cross-neutralizing immunity antibodies
Influenza
- Universal flu vaccines: Preclinical data demonstrating broadly cross-reactive HAI and / or neutralizing antibodies (ie, not just cellular immunity) and protection from challenge (survival and weight loss) comparable to seasonally matched control vaccines
- Seasonal influenza vaccines that have clinical data demonstrating differentiation from marketed products (eg, potential for differentiation and / or neutralizing antibodies in elderly subjects)
Improvements on existing in-house vaccines, which would allow for reduced dosing, improved productivity, or increased cross-strain protection

Novel technologies for:
- Antigen selection, discovery, and identification
- Vectored approaches
- Vaccine administration, eg, dermal or mucosal delivery of vaccines
- Multiplexed clinical assay platforms
- Antigen display systems, carriers, and novel chemistries for conjugation
- Biochemical / biophysical antigen characterization (COAs)
- Expression of bacterial membrane proteins
- Technologies to study human immune responses in vitro that may be predictive of in vivo
- Enhanced thermostability of vaccines during transport and storage
Novel adjuvants and immunomodulators
- Highly desirable if preclinical efficacy or clinical POC achieved, but not necessarily required
- Robust preclinical toxicology data demonstrating acceptable safety profile
- Including means to elicit mucosal immunity
Novel cell lines for vaccine or recombinant protein production, preferably with Phase I safety data

Biodefense targets
Products containing thimerosal or unmodified animal / human components
Seasonal vaccines (eg, influenza) that are not clinically differentiated from marketed products
DNA-based vaccines for infectious diseases without clinical POC