Category | Life Sciences and Biotechnology |
Keywords | Vaccine, Covid-19, Formulation |
Current development stage | For Pharmaceutical development: TRL3 – Hypothesis testing and initial POC is demonstrated in limited number of in-vitro models |
Prof. Meital Reches (HUJI), Dr. Guy Mechrez (ARO) and Dr. Aviv Dombrovsky (ARO)
Application
- The 2019 Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak raised the need for the rapid development of vaccines that could be readily adaptable to the mutating viruses and could be easily stored at room temperature.
- The major challenge in the development of vaccine formulation is the ability to produce one vaccine against many variants of a virus and ideally even several viruses. This challenge requires immobilizing and exposing high amounts of the virus antigenic determinants (epitopes) on the surface of a given vessel such as cells, liposomes, or droplets to stimulate a strong immune response.
Our innovation
A new stable vaccine formulation based on a twofold enhancement mechanism of epitope concentration and presentation capability. This platform can simultaneously present several different epitopes and can be adaptable to the changing viruses.
The new approach is based on introducing an epitope to the immune system by their covalent immobilization on plant viruses-like particles (VLPs) when presented on the surface of an oil droplet at high concentrations and presentation capability.
Advantages
- The platform can immobilize the viral epitopes on a surface at high concentrations, which would yield maximal efficacy of the vaccine.
- The platform can present different epitopes simultaneously and therefore can simultaneously serve as a vaccine for several viruses or pathogens.
- This formulation does not require special storage conditions and can be kept at room temperature.
Opportunity
This new formulation approach is aimed at answering the global need for rapid vaccine development for different exciting and emerging viruses and pathogens. It presents a way to overcome challenges in vaccine development.
We are seeking companies interested in vaccine development.