{"id":1489,"date":"2023-10-29T10:55:16","date_gmt":"2023-10-29T10:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inimmune.com\/?p=1489"},"modified":"2024-07-19T15:30:30","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T15:30:30","slug":"um-and-inimmune-receive-12-3-m-nih-contract-to-advance-new-adjuvant-for-vaccines-targeting-bacterial-and-fungal-infections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inimmune.com\/?p=1489","title":{"rendered":"UM and Inimmune Receive $12.3 M NIH Contract to Advance New Adjuvant for Vaccines Targeting Bacterial and Fungal Infections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Contact:<\/strong> Jay Evans, research professor, UM Center for Translational Medicine director, 406-
381-0573, jay.evans@umontana.edu.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

UM Leads $12.3M Contract to Advance TB Vaccine
UM News Service<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MISSOULA, Montana, October, 29, 2023<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013<\/strong> The National Institutes of Health recently awarded a $12.3 million contract to the University of Montana to develop a novel vaccine adjuvant for use in a tuberculosis vaccine. Adjuvants are substances that boost the effectiveness of vaccines. The five-year award went to UM\u2019s Center for Translational Medicine and its partners. The contract is titled \u201cDevelopment of UM-1098: A Novel Synthetic Th17 Inducing Adjuvant and Delivery System.\u201d

\u201cThe development and clinical evaluation of safe and effective adjuvants is urgently needed for the advancement of vaccines to combat the ongoing threat of bacterial and fungal infections, including tuberculosis, pertussis and others,\u201d said Jay Evans, director of the UM center. \u201cTB affects a significant portion of the global population, and the only licensed vaccine, BCG, has limited effectiveness. Thus the development of an effective vaccine is critical to end the global TB epidemic.\u201d

According to the World Health Organization, 1.6 million people died from TB in 2021. Worldwide, TB is the 13th leading cause of death and second leading infectious killer after COVID-19 (above HIV and AIDS). Drs. Evans and Walid Abdelwahab are the co-principal investigators on the contract, along with their colleagues Drs. David Burkhart, Asia Riel and Blair DeBuysscher with Center for Translational Medicine. The project also includes researchers from the University of Chicago (Dr. Shabaana Khadar), the Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Dr. Smriti Mehra) and Missoula-based Inimmune Corp., a corporate development partner (Drs. Kendal Ryter and Shannon Miller).

Evans said vaccine development for TB and other bacterial and fungal pathogens has been hampered by the lack of appropriate adjuvants and effective formulations. This new contract builds upon a recently completed $13 million NIH Adjuvant Discovery Contract, which identified the lead candidate being advanced towards human clinical trials in the current award. \u201cThis funding represents tremendous support for our continuous research efforts in advancing safe and efficient adjuvants and formulation strategies for further development of vaccine candidates against TB,\u201d Abdelwahab said. \u201cThis contract is a strong endorsement of our exceptional vaccine research team at UM.\u201d

The project involves a large vaccine research team at UM with more than two decades of research on improving vaccines through the use of adjuvants \u2013 components added to vaccines to improve the immune response \u2013 and novel delivery systems to ensure vaccines are safely and efficiently delivered to the targeted cells. The UM research will involve both undergraduate and graduate students, providing them with an opportunity to do research on a new vaccine that may have a profound impact on global health.

\u201cThere is extraordinary research ongoing at UM that could positively impact the lives of countless people,\u201d Evans said. \u201cOur Vaccine Research Team is dedicated to nurturing and cultivating an interactive research community at UM, specifically geared toward advancing these technologies to help individuals and communities in Montana and across the globe.\u201d Inimmune is a biotech company located at the University\u2019s business incubator, MonTEC. It will assist with vaccine manufacturing efforts and advancement of this new technology to human clinical trials. The Inimmune efforts will be led by Ryter, the company\u2019s vice president of manufacturing and development.

\u201cInimmune is very excited to be chosen as a collaborator to advance this exciting new technology,\u201d Ryter said. \u201cAdjuvants and immunomodulators that effectively drive a Th17-biased immune response are not part of the standard vaccine tool kit, and we see this approach as having tremendous potential in developing therapies for some of the most difficult to treat and impactful infectious diseases in the world, such as TB.\u201d Founded in 2016, Inimmune focuses on the discovery and development of new immunomodulatory therapeutics for treatment of allergic diseases, cancer and infectious disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contact: Jay Evans, research professor, UM Center for Translational Medicine director, 406-381-0573, jay.evans@umontana.edu. UM Leads $12.3M Contract to Advance TB VaccineUM News Service MISSOULA, Montana, October, 29, 2023\u00a0\u2013 The National Institutes of Health recently awarded a $12.3 million contract to the University of Montana to develop a novel vaccine adjuvant for use in a tuberculosis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"publication-year":[31],"class_list":["post-1489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases","publication-year-31"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t