Characterizing the impact of a novel therapeutic on the infection strategy of pathogens

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Salmonella infections represent a significant public health concern and disease burden. Significant sources of infection are typically contaminated meat and poultry, eggs, and fresh produce. As such, the control of Salmonella infections in poultry products is one means to reduce human infections. While advances have been made in reducing the frequency of Salmonella contamination in processed poultry, there is mounting pressure on commercial producers to prevent and/or eliminate these pathogens in pre-harvest production facilities. NovoBind Livestock Therapeutics Inc. proposes to develop a novel antibody-based therapeutic strategy that could be provided to commercial growers to prevent and/or eliminate Salmonella pathogens in pre-harvest poultry production facilities. Currently, novel Salmonella-specific antibodies have been generated and are being tested for their efficacy using in vitro and in vivo methods. The work proposed here capitalizes on the expertise of Dr. Michael Murphy in the fields of protein biochemistry, biophysics, and structural biology. This project proposes to: (1) optimize the protein purity and yields of NovoBind's novel antibodies and antigens in order to conduct unique proof of concept experiments, (2) measure the strength of binding between antibodies and antigens, and (3) begin to map the interaction between the most promising antibody/antigen combinations. The development of a Salmonella-selective and highly effective antibody would benefit Canadian and World populations by reducing human infection and illness, loss of life and costs of treatment. The revenue generated by NovoBind in delivering this product would also be an economic boost to Canada.