EpiVax part of team to develop vaccine for tropical disease classified ‘biothreat’

EpiVax has been named part of a team to develop a vaccine against a bacterium that causes melioidosis, a tropical disease that is often fatal and which the U.S. Department of Defense has identified as a potential “biothreat.”
EpiVax has been named part of a team to develop a vaccine against a bacterium that causes melioidosis, a tropical disease that is often fatal and which the U.S. Department of Defense has identified as a potential “biothreat.”

(Updated, Dec. 19, 4:40 p.m.)
PROVIDENCE – EpiVax Inc. is part of a team that has been awarded a $1.87 million grant from Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency to develop an effective vaccine against Burkholderia pseudomallei, a bacterium that leads to melioidosis, a tropical disease that is resistant to many antibiotics and which can lead to a fatality rate of more than 70 percent.

The disease is endemic to Southeast Asia and northern Australia, but is spreading to other parts of the world, and is of concern to U.S. military personnel deployed in tropical climes. The U.S. military command also has classified Bpm as a potential biothreat. There currently are no effective vaccines against melioidosis.

EpiVax joins lead investigator CUBRC Inc., a nonprofit based in Buffalo, N.Y., that performs research and development in a broad area of life sciences, including chemical and biological defense, along with the University of Florida in performing work under the grant, although Providence-based EpiVax is the scientific lead on the project, according to the company, with CUBRC providing project management support.

EpiVax will contribute its immuno-informatics tools to the effort, and they are expected to speed the pace of development of a vaccine as well as generate quick feedback on the chances for success. All of the work performed by EpiVax will take place at its local offices.

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“EpiVax has worked hard to be at the forefront of vaccine antigen selection using our proprietary computational vaccinology tools,” said EpiVax founder and CEO Dr. Anne S. De Groot. “These tools make it possible to develop safer, more efficient vaccines and accelerate the development of new vaccines for national biodefense,” she added. De Groot is the co-principal investigator for the program. The principal investigator and program lead is Katie Edwards of CUBRC. Also working on the project will be EpiVax Director of Vaccine Research Lenny Moise.

In addition to the immuno-informatics tools, EpiVax will perform T-cell assays using cells collected from Thai Burkholderia survivors that were recruited by the University of Florida, according to Moise.

Thanks to this grant as well as other new work, EpiVax will need to hire one person to complement the 10 existing staff members who will be involved in the science of the project and in financial management, he said.

In September EpiVax was awarded $600,000 from the National Institutes of Health through the Small Business Innovation program to improve a vaccine for the H7N9 avian influenza virus.

EpiVax is currently working with DTRA through a $5.2 million contract to develop a new vaccine against Q fever. The team is paired up with Massachusetts General Hospital, Colorado State University, Yale University and InnatOss Laboratories in the Netherlands.

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