January 30, 2020
Bethesda, MD- A patented technology co-developed by the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. (HJF), the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), and Biological Mimetics, Inc. (BMI), is enabling safer, more potent, and less expensive vaccine creation. BMI, a vaccine design company based in Frederick, MD, has announced their development of a next-generation polio vaccine called Ultra-IPV.
The work leading to Ultra-IPV, which used an earlier version of the proprietary technology, was developed in collaboration with Michael J. Daly, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Pathology at USU. The work has been recently published in PLOS ONE and is available to read at the following link: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228006.
The new vaccine is a result of a collaborative study led by Dr. Daly and Gregory J. Tobin, President of BMI, Inc. The research was facilitated under a series of Cooperative Research and Development Agreements in conjunction with HJF.
The researchers applied a new vaccine platform, based on exposing viruses to gamma radiation in the presence of a powerful manganese antioxidant from the radiation-resistant Deinococcus radiodurans, aka Conan the Bacterium. When tested on radiation-zapped polioviruses, the Deinococcus Mn antioxidant preserved the entire virus protein shell, causing less damage than chemical inactivation methods used to make commercial Inactivated Poliovirus Vaccines (IPVs). As a consequence, many more doses of vaccine can be produced per milligram of starting virus. In addition, the novel technology is compatible with attenuated Sabin strains of poliovirus which will reduce biohazards during the manufacturing process.
This project was supported by a Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) grant and National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to Dr. Tobin. The team included Drs. Chumakov and Kouiavskaia at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Dr. Meeks at DTRA. For more information on Deinococcus research see, http://www.usuhs.mil/pat/deinococcus/index_20.htm.
About HJF: The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. (HJF) is a global nonprofit organization with the mission to advance military medicine. HJF’s scientific, administrative and program operations services empower investigators, clinicians, and medical researchers around the world to make discoveries in all areas of medicine. With more than 35 years of experience, HJF serves as a trusted and responsive link between the military medical community, federal and private partners, and the millions of warfighters, veterans, and civilians who benefit from military medicine. For more information, visit hjf.org.