SBIR Phase I: Rapid Development of a Protein Vaccine for COVID-19

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是开发一种疫苗，以防止感染SARS-CoV-2病毒。该项目是一种新型疫苗，可以激活免疫系统的多种成分，可能比其他SAR-CoV-2疫苗更有效，并使用众所周知的蛋白质疫苗方法。这个SBIR第一阶段项目将基于结合了两个功能的平台技术来推进蛋白质疫苗，激活免疫系统并针对特定的病原体或细胞进行攻击。该平台采用模块化设计，可以以盒式磁带的方式进行重新设计，将攻击重新定向到不同的目标。这项技术的应用包括针对病毒和受病毒感染的细胞的疫苗，以及针对特定癌症类型的疫苗。疫苗可以快速产生，并很容易重新设计。本项目的重点将是利用免疫激活平台生产这种SARS-CoV-2靶向蛋白疫苗，该平台将SARS-CoV-2刺突蛋白插入到平台的靶向结构域中。随后将进行研究，以证明候选疫苗在体外模型和动物模型中的活性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is the development of a vaccine to prevent infection from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The proposed project is a novel vaccine that activates multiple components of the immune system, potentially more effective than other SAR-CoV-2 vaccines, and using a well-understood approach as a protein-based vaccine.This SBIR Phase I project will advance a protein vaccine based upon a platform technology combining two functions, activating the immune system and targeting it to attack to a specific pathogen or cell. The platform has a modular design that allows it to be re-engineered, in a cassette-like fashion, to redirect the attack to different targets. Applications for the technology include vaccines against viruses and cells infected by viruses, as well as against specific cancer types. The vaccine can be rapidly generated and easily re-engineered. The focus of this project will be to produce this SARS-CoV-2 targeted protein vaccine utilizing an immune-activating platform with the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein inserted into the targeting domain of the platform. The will be followed by studies to demonstrate the vaccine candidate activity in an in vitro model and an animal model.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.