| Ufovax, LLC |
Medicine Pharmaceuticals
COVID-19 vaccine
Ufovax has announced that the company has successfully extended its patented one component self-assembling protein nanoparticle (1c-SApNP) vaccine platform technology to a vaccine against the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The vaccine prototype features SARS-CoV-2 protein spikes protruding from a protein nanoparticle scaffold. As a virus-like particle (VLP), the nanoparticle vaccine would induce the immune system to rapidly generate antibodies to neutralize (deactivate) the coronavirus, offering a recipient protection against the real SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The 1c-SApNP vaccine platform was invented by Jiang Zhu, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at Scripps Research. This platform has already delivered promising vaccine candidates to address global health challenges such as HIV, HCV, Ebola, and RSV. Over the past two years, Zhu has co-led two NIH-supported projects focusing on SARS-CoV/MERS-CoV vaccine development. After the recent COVID-19 outbreak, Zhu and his team used the nanoparticle platform to create a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 in less than 60 days.
The nanoparticle vaccine consists of self-assembling VLPs made from identical proteins; these proteins are synthesized through the insertion of a single plasmid encoding the relevant gene into a CHO or C1 (DYAI) host cell, followed by one-step expression and two subsequent purifications. The viability of this process for large-scale vaccine production has been validated by external industrial partners.
Ufovax is a privately held biotechnology company and holds exclusive rights to develop and commercialize Scripps Research nanoparticle vaccine technology for certain vaccine targets.
In the preclinical evaluation/regulatory stage
