Education  September 29, 2006

Juvaris receives $1 mil to research bioterrorism

A California company founded on Colorado State University technology is moving forward with bioterrorism research after receiving a $1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Pleasanton, Calif.-based Juvaris Biotherapeutics Inc. was founded in 2003 based on the research of Steven Dow, an associate professor in the microbiology, immunology and pathology department at CSU. The company licensed a patent from CSU that provides a platform for creating immunotherapeutic treatments.

The company received a $1 million, two-year grant to work in collaboration with Catharine Bosio, an assistant professor in CSU’s microbiology, immunology and pathology department, to develop a treatment for Francisella tularensis – also known as tularemia.

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“It’s a disease that presents itself in a variety of ways,” she said.

Tularemia was discovered in the early 1920s, when it was referred to as rabbit fever because it was often contracted by people who had been handling rabbit carcasses. The disease is endemic in the U.S., with about 100 cases each year.

“The primary reason (for the research) is that it has been weaponized in the past and used as a weapon in the past,” she said.

The disease is treatable with antibiotics now, but can be deadly depending on how it is contracted. Tularemia can be contracted through open wounds or orally, but it is most deadly if inhaled, with a 60 percent mortality rate.

The problem is that if inhaled, the disease does not create much of a pathological change in the lung tissue, meaning it is hard to diagnose and often can go untreated for many days before symptoms become present.

“The catch is that you really need to start administering antibiotics within the first few days of infection,” Bosio explained.

Bosio hopes to apply Dow’s immunotherapeutic platform toward a treatment for tularemia. Immunotherapeutic treatments are those that are administered to already infected patients. Unlike antibiotics, which attack the pathogen, immunotherapeutic vaccinations actually activate the immune system to take care of the pathogen on its own.

The advantages of immunotherapeutic treatments over antibiotics is that pathogens have been known to mutate to resist antibiotics. Bosio added that the goal is to create a treatment that could be administered to a large number of people who may or may not have contracted the disease, such as in the wake of a laboratory accident or bioterrorism attack. Treating uninfected people with an antibiotic could stimulate an unwanted response, whereas the immunotherapeutic treatment will be better tolerated.

Bosio has already demonstrated effectiveness in animal models with some strains of tularemia, but the grant will allow her and Juvaris to test with one of the most highly virulent strains. She said that Juvaris is studying the level of the dose and the affect of repeated doses.

“We’re just getting ready to start a number of experiments,” she said.

SBIR grant supports commercialization

The $1 million NIH grant, a Small Business Innovation Research grant, will support about two years of research. Bosio said that the SBIR grants are typically short-term, but allow for research to move to the next step and eventually get to market.

“That’s one of the reasons (the NIH) started funding these grants,” Bosio said of the commercialization opportunity.

Juvaris has been successful in landing NIH grants this year.

“This is a milestone event for Juvaris Biotherapeutics since it represents our entry into the important area of biodefense,´ said Juvaris CEO Martin Cleary.

The company also received another SBIR grant earlier this year to test a vaccine that will ultimately be used to combat Human Immunodeficiency Virus. The grant will allow University of California researchers to use Dow’s platform to test the treatment using the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus as a model.

“It’s very broadly applicable,´ said John Warner, the chief scientific officer for Juvaris. “We’re using the same core technology (in several research projects).”

The company is forming collaborations with researchers with expertise in different disease models – such as Bosio’s expertise with potential bioterror agents. Warner described it as a shotgun approach to finding the proper applications.

“We’ve gotten this flood of quite remarkable results,” he said. “It tells us that the technology is quite robust.”

The company is continuing to look for a first round of venture funding. The Web site indicates it would like to raise $10 million, which it hopes to close on in the near future.

Warner is also encouraged by a shift in the pharmaceutical industry. The industry had moved away from new vaccination production due to the long lead time to develop and the significant amount of investment needed. However, Warner said that technological advances, such as Dow’s, are generating a renewed industry interest.

“The interest in the pharmaceutical arena is in an uptick,” he said. “I think we’ll see the impact of that.”

A California company founded on Colorado State University technology is moving forward with bioterrorism research after receiving a $1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Pleasanton, Calif.-based Juvaris Biotherapeutics Inc. was founded in 2003 based on the research of Steven Dow, an associate professor in the microbiology, immunology and pathology department at CSU. The company licensed a patent from CSU that provides a platform for creating immunotherapeutic treatments.

The company received a $1 million, two-year grant to work in collaboration with Catharine Bosio, an assistant professor in CSU’s microbiology, immunology and pathology department, to develop a treatment for Francisella tularensis…

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