Genocea Biosciences, a leading vaccine discovery and development company, today announced that it has entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC). NMRC will collaborate with Genocea to identify antigens that will be used in the development of a vaccine candidate against Plasmodium falciparum for the prevention of malaria.
“This CRADA validates our proprietary T-cell-directed antigen discovery platform technology and further strengthens our position as a leader in novel vaccine development against pathogens with a high unmet medical need”
Genocea and NMRC will leverage their expertise to identify novel malaria vaccine candidate antigens and move promising antigens through preclinical development. Genocea will apply its innovative technology to the rapid identification of novel T-cell antigens from a proteomic screen of the P. falciparum organism, and NMRC will share materials as well as their extensive experience developing subunit malaria vaccines.
This work is funded by a $2.7 million award that was granted to Genocea from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) for rapid T-cell antigen discovery using human T-cell screens of a P. falciparum proteomic library.
"This CRADA validates our proprietary T-cell-directed antigen discovery platform technology and further strengthens our position as a leader in novel vaccine development against pathogens with a high unmet medical need," said Staph Leavenworth Bakali, president and chief executive officer of Genocea. "Our technology is uniquely suited to rapidly identifying antigens in the very large and complex P. falciparum proteome that will be most likely to stimulate broad immune protection. We look forward to working with NMRC to identify such antigens that will lead to a safe and effective vaccine against malaria both for the Military and also potentially for travelers and populations living in endemic regions."
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