Diversa Awarded NIH BioDefense Grant for Antibody Development
SAN DIEGO, Aug. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Diversa Corporation (Nasdaq: DVSA - News) today announced that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded the company a BioDefense grant for multiple proteomics studies and antibody development projects. Under the two-and-a-half-year-grant, Diversa will employ its advanced proteomics capabilities to identify potential new targets associated with anthrax and plague virulence and will use validated targets to screen for therapeutic antibodies from Diversa's de novo human antibody platform. NIAID has recommended approximately $3.7 million of total funding under this grant, of which $940,926 has been authorized for the first six months of the project.
This NIH project is complementary to Diversa's ongoing efforts to identify and optimize antibodies for BioDefense applications under a grant from the Department of Defense's Chemical and Biological Defense Initiatives Fund and a second project focused on the optimization of key BioDefense antibodies under a grant from the NIH. As part of the BioDefense projects being funded by these awards, Diversa will collaborate with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) to develop diagnostic and therapeutic antibodies against anthrax and to identify new targets associated with anthrax and plague pathology. Under this most recent grant from NIH, Diversa will collaborate with investigators from USAMRIID and the University of North Dakota to identify additional targets associated with anthrax and plague virulence and to screen for novel antibodies to detect and protect against related bioweapons. A total of three related proteomics and antibody projects, which are significant components of Diversa's "Rapid Antibody-Based Biological Countermeasures" (RABBC) program, have been awarded funds from the NIH and the Department of Defense.
Diversa's RABBC strategy is to apply its proprietary technologies to:
1. Discover novel, validated protein targets;
2. Develop diagnostic antibodies optimized for affinity and selectivity
to biowarfare agents; and
3. Create a collection of human therapeutic antibodies for passive
immunity protection against bioweapons and more effective treatment
against pathogens and toxins.
Diversa's RABBC approach may provide several significant advantages to the military and civilian authorities, because antibodies can stimulate the host immune system, as well as neutralize toxin and pathogen virulence. Human antibodies are part of the body's natural defense mechanism and therefore provide a potential low toxicity alternative when compared to some vaccines and antibiotics. Diversa's technologies have the potential to isolate antibodies against targets that have been difficult or refractory in the past and to quickly address new pathogens that have not been observed previously. Diversa's RABBC program is complementary to its internal pharmaceutical programs, which are focused on the discovery of small molecule drugs and antibodies. |
