Genocea Biosciences, a leading vaccine discovery and development
company, today announced it has been awarded a grant from the University
of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s (UPMC) Sexually Transmitted Infections
(STI) Cooperative Research Center for the development of vaccines for Chlamydia
trachomatis.
“We look forward to collaborating with Dr. Darville, an internationally
recognized Chlamydia researcher, in tackling the most reported sexually
transmitted infection of bacterial origin in the United States,” said
Staph Leavenworth Bakali, Genocea’s president and chief executive
officer. “Our research to date serves as the foundation of this
collaboration and highlights Genocea’s demonstrated ability to rapidly
identify proprietary, novel Chlamydia antigens that are protective or
associated with disease progression in patients, and may play a role in
the development of a vaccine for this disease. This collaboration
complements ongoing preclinical studies based on already identified
novel antigens.”
Genocea will be working with the UPMC STI Cooperative Research Center’s
Principal Investigator, Toni Darville, M.D., chief of the Division of
Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and a
professor of pediatrics and immunology at the University of Pittsburgh
School of Medicine, and Tom Cherpes, M.D., assistant professor of
obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of
Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a researcher at Magee-Womens Research
Institute.