Thank you for your interest in the Innovations in Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for Respiratory Viruses program. Since the program is looking for innovations in delivery, biodistribution, and durability of PrEP approaches, teaming collaborations between diverse sets of innovators might be needed to achieve these goals.
Teaming
If you or your organization would like to explore collaborations with other potential applicants, please complete the form below. After a short vetting process, you will be contacted be VITAL, and your information will be added to the publicly accessible list below.
Please note that by publishing the teaming profiles list, neither VITAL nor BARDA is endorsing, sponsoring, or otherwise evaluating the qualifications of the individuals or organizations included. Additionally, completing the form does not constitute an application for the PrEP funding opportunity, but rather, provides you an opportunity to partner and collaborate with other potential applicants to strengthen the quality of the submission.
Submissions to the teaming profiles list are reviewed and updated periodically.
Contact
Organization
Relevant Technology
Potential for Teaming
CHO Plus has developed technologies for engineering cells toward increasing and improving biologicals productivity such as monoclonal antibodies and viral vectors. We have demonstrated the ability to produce monoclonal antibodies at up to 13.5 grams/liter. We engineer CHO cells to contain up to 40-fold higher endoplasmic reticulum per cell and these cells are high producers. We can also engineer cells to contain much higher amounts of Golgi apparatus per cell. We believe we can increase sialic acid site occupancy from the common range of 60-80% to approximately 90%. Higher sialic acid is known to increase serum half-life. We can make YTE mutations in the Fc portion of the mAbs that have been shown to increase serum half-life and used in many licensed antibody therapeutics. The CHO Plus innovation will combine our high productivity cell lines to make higher sialic acid mAbs, YTE mutation mAbs, and mAbs that combine both.
CHO Plus’s expertise is cell engineering technology not respiratory product development. We seek a partner active in the respiratory therapeutics space to properly test—or to supervise the testing of—the mAbs we produce to measure long acting mAbs potential against influenza, or other high priority targets, with serum PK studies in humanized rodent models.
MucosaTec develops a long-acting monoclonal antibody platform targeting influenza virus and RSV as its initial focus. The platform is based on mAb conjugates, which enhance durability.
A potential partner supplies mAbs at large scales.
Co-development of products and resources and know-how sharing; publications and establish a foundation for future collaborations and partnerships.
IITRI is a leading preclinical CRO with extensive experience in supporting vaccine and therapeutic development for respiratory viruses, including models for both seasonal and HPAI strains. We can support biodistribution, efficacy, transmission, immunogenicity, and safety assessment for protein and peptide-based therapeutics in small and large animal models including NHPs. Our expertise in delivery platforms is inclusive of inhalation-based administration and bioaerosol generation systems in our ABSL-2 and ABSL-3 facilities. Supporting bioanalytical capabilities include viral titers (nasal washes and tissues), Hemagglutination inhibition assay (HAI), Immunological assays (ELISA, ELISpot, virus neutralization assays), complete blood cell count with differential, and immunophenotyping by flow cytometry.
IITRI is seeking collaborators with innovative platforms who are looking for a non-profit preclinical CRO partner with BSL2/3 and Select Agent capabilities. We are especially interested in partners with a need for inhalation or intranasal delivery and want a dedicated support team throughout the process. Ideal teaming partners would benefit from our robust preclinical infrastructure, regulatory experience, and proven track record in respiratory virus research of supporting government funded contracts. We can continue to support partners from early development through IND-enabling studies and clinical trial sample analysis.
