NIAID awards Antigen Discovery a Phase II STTR grant for Chlamydia vaccine development

Sep 21 2009

Antigen Discovery, Inc. ("ADi", formerly ImmPORT Therapeutics, Inc.), a leading biotech company in high throughput antigen and biomarker discovery, announced today that the Company was awarded a Phase II STTR from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. The $1.8 million grant will fund efforts to further test and validate novel candidate antigens discovered during the Company's successful STTR Phase I program. ADi intends to develop the novel antigens as core protective components in a vaccine against Chlamydia. ADi will collaborate with investigators in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine of School of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine (UCI).

"ADi's high throughput proteomics technology is a powerful platform to translate readily available genomic information into the development of next generation diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines," said Dr. Xiaowu Liang, CEO of ADi. "Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common sexually transmitted bacterial pathogen. An efficacious vaccine against Chlamydia will have a tremendous health and economic impact throughout the world. We are pleased to collaborate with the leading Chlamydia researcher at UCI in applying our proven platform technology to address this critical public health concern. We are also thankful and appreciative of continued support of the US Government and NIAID on this important endeavor."

"ADi's high throughput proteomics approach has allowed us, for the first time, to successfully scan the entire proteome of Chlamydia trachomatis," added Dr. Luis de la Maza, the Principal Investigator on the STTR grant. "Our goal for this phase of the project is to identify a small subset of recombinant chlamydial antigens that induce strong protection against infection challenge. These antigens will be ideal candidates to develop a novel Chlamydia vaccine."

The two year, $1.8 million, Phase II STTR grant supplements a previously awarded Phase I STTR to ADi in 2007.