Category Archives: Immunology

Tulane receives $2 million to decipher why some asthmatics are highly sensitive to fungi – News from Tulane

June 17, 2020 medical

Chad Steele is professor and chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Tulane University School of Medicine. (Photo by Paula Burch-Celentano)

The spores that live on everything from carpets to ceiling tiles can cause a severe reaction among the large group of asthmatics who demonstrate sensitivity to fungi. A new Tulane University study aims to discover why this certain group of asthmatics experiences worse asthma, characterized by lower lung function and a more severe allergic reactions, when compared to asthmatics who react to other irritants.

The study is being led by Chad Steele, professor and chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Tulane School of Medicine. It will build on over a decade of Steeles work, which has helped uncover the mechanisms behind asthmatic sensitivity to fungi.

Using an experimental animal model that mimics the allergic airway inflammation seen in human response to fungi, Steele and his team will study how the immune system reacts to chitin. Chitin is the fibrous substance than makes up the outer exoskeletons of arthropods, such as shellfish and cockroaches, and is also a significant component of the cell walls of fungi. Previous research has not fully deciphered how and why asthmatics react to chitin, but Steele aims to change that by taking a deeper dive into the scientific mechanisms.

We have other components that were also testing, Steele said. Fungi have a lot of carbohydrates and sugars in their cell walls, so were looking at things like beta-glucans and mannans and how chitin interacts with these in provoking an allergic reaction. These are components that are known to be recognized by the immune system and some are more inflammatory than others.

The scientists hope to precisely define how chitin triggers an asthmatic response. While the research is mostly focused on the experimental animal model, Steele is also including a human translational element in this study. Mammals have substances (enzymes called chitinases) that are known to break down chitin, and there are also chitinase-like proteins that regulate immunity. Steele will investigate the levels of these chitinases and chitinase-like proteins in samples from human asthmatics and correlate them with the severity of their asthma. What he uncovers could lead to better ways to treat patients who suffer from this type of asthma.

We have multiple drugs now that block a variety of different inflammatory mediators in asthma, Steele said. If we can find the right one, we have the potential to modulate severity in this subset of patients who are highly sensitized to fungi and have difficulty controlling their asthma.

The study is being funded by a four-year, $2 million grant by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health.

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Immunology

Mutation of Coronavirus Is Significantly Increasing Its Ability To Infect – Technology Networks

June 17, 2020 medical

A tiny genetic mutation in the SARS coronavirus 2 variant circulating throughout Europe and the United States significantly increases the virus ability to infect cells, lab experiments performed at Scripps Research show.

Viruses with this mutation were much more infectious than those without the mutation in the cell culture system we used, says Scripps Research virologist Hyeryun Choe, PhD, senior author of the study.

The mutation had the effect of markedly increasing the number of functional spikes on the viral surface, she adds. Those spikes are what allow the virus to bind to and infect cells.

The numberor densityof functional spikes on the virus is 4 or 5 times greater due to this mutation, Choe says.

The spikes give the coronavirus its crown-like appearance and enable it to latch onto target cell receptors called ACE2. The mutation, called D614G, provides greater flexibility to the spikes backbone, explains co-author Michael Farzan, PhD, co-chairman of the Scripps Research Department of Immunology and Microbiology.

More flexible spikes allow newly made viral particles to navigate the journey from producer cell to target cell fully intact, with less tendency to fall apart prematurely, he explains.

Our data are very clear, the virus becomes much more stable with the mutation, Choe says.

There has been much debate about why COVID-19 outbreaks in Italy and New York have so quickly overwhelmed health systems, while early outbreaks in places like San Francisco and Washington state proved more readily managed, at least initially. Was it something about those communities and their response, or had the virus somehow changed?

All viruses acquire minute genetic changes as they reproduce and spread. Those changes rarely impact fitness or ability to compete. The SARS-CoV-2 variant that circulated in the earliest regional outbreaks lacked the D614G mutation now dominating in much of the world.

But was that because of the so-called founder effect, seen when a small number of variants fan out into a wide population, by chance? Choe and Farzan believe their biochemical experiments settle the question.

There have been at least a dozen scientific papers talking about the predominance of this mutation, Farzan says. Are we just seeing a founder effect? Our data nails it. It is not the founder effect.

Choe and Farzans paper is titled The D614G mutation in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein reduces S1 shedding and increases infectivity. Now undergoing peer review, it is being posted prior to publication to the pre-print site bioRxiv, and released early, amid news reports of its findings.

Choe and Farzan note that their research was performed using harmless viruses engineered to produce key coronavirus proteins. Whether the changes they observed also translate to increased transmissibility in the real world requires additional epidemiological studies, they note.

Encouragingly, the duo found that immune factors from the serum of infected people work equally well against engineered viruses both with and without the D614G mutation. Thats a hopeful sign that vaccine candidates in development will work against variants with or without that mutation, Choe says.

Choe and Farzan have studied coronaviruses for nearly 20 years, since the first outbreak of SARS, a similar virus. They were the first to discover in 2003 that SARS bound to the ACE2 receptor on cells. Others experiments have shown the SARS-CoV-2 virus binds the same ACE2 receptor.

But Farzan and Choe note a key structural difference between spike proteins on the first SARS virus and this new pandemic strain. With both, under an electron microscope, the spike has tripod shape, with its three segments bound together at a backbone-like scaffold. But SARS-CoV-2 is different. Its tripod is divided in two discreet segments, S1 and S2.

Initially, this unusual feature produced unstable spikes, Farzan says. Only about a quarter of the hundreds of spikes on each SARS-CoV-2 virus maintain the structure they need to successfully infect a target cell. With the mutation, the tripod breaks much less frequently, meaning more of its spikes are fully functional, he says.

The addition of the D614G mutation means that the amino acid at that location is switched from aspartic acid to glycine. That renders it more bendable, Farzan says. Evidence of its success can be seen in the sequenced strains that scientists globally are contributing to databases including GenBank, the duo reports. In February, no sequences deposited to the GenBank database showed the D614G mutation. But by March, it appeared in 1 out of 4 samples. In May, it appeared in 70 percent of samples, Farzan says.

Over time, it has figured out how to hold on better and not fall apart until it needs to, Farzan says. The virus has, under selection pressure, made itself more stable.

It is still unknown whether this small mutation affects the severity of symptoms of infected people, or increases mortality, the scientists say. While ICU data from New York and elsewhere reports a preponderance of the new D614G variant, much more data, ideally under controlled studies, are needed, Choe says.

ReferenceThe D614G mutation in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein reduces S1 shedding and increases infectivity. Lizhou Zhang, Cody B Jackson, Huihui Mou, Amrita Ojha, Erumbi S Rangarajan, Tina Izard, Michael Farzan, Hyeryun Choe.bioRxiv,doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.12.148726.

This article is based on research findings that are yet to be peer-reviewed. Results are therefore regarded as preliminary and should be interpreted as such. Find out about the role of the peer review process in research here. For further information, please contact the cited source.

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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Immunology

IONpath appoints Brad Nelson to its leadership team as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Strategy – PR Newswire UK

June 17, 2020 medical

MENLO PARK, California, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- IONpath, Inc. the leader in multiplexed spatial tissue imaging and analysis, today announced the appointment of Brad Nelson to the position of Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Strategy. Mr. Nelson will lead marketing, product management and application functions to meet the increasing demand for translational medicine insights that can only be achieved with Multiplexed Ion Beam Imaging (MIBI).

Rapid growth in immuno-oncology and adjacent markets requires approaches that can sensitively detect and quantify the expression of multiple biomarkers while preserving spatial information. IONpath is uniquely capable of addressing these market needs and is positioned for rapid commercial growth both with their MIBIScope instrument and their comprehensive Research Services offering. Mr. Nelson will provide commercial leadership as IONpath meets this increasing demand from pharma, biotech and academic customers.

"Brad brings a unique combination of broad marketing and corporate development experience and a deep technical background," Dr. Harris Fienberg, IONpath CEO said. "Our entire team is excited to have Brad on board to guide our immuno-oncology strategy and expand our offerings into new markets."

Mr. Nelson has over twenty years of experience in leading rapid growth life science and medical device organizations. He has a track record of success at early stage companies bringing new technology and applications to market, driving rapid growth from product inception to broad scale adoption. Most recently he served as Vice President of Marketing at Magnolia Medical Technologies leading the brand and product portfolio development for the company's Steripath technology which experienced rapid adoption and over 70 percent annual revenue growth.

Prior to Magnolia Medical, Mr. Nelson served as Head of Marketing and Director of Corporate Development at Labcyte Inc., leading the development of new global markets and collaborations that delivered sustained revenue growth and the acquisition by Danaher Corporation. Previously he led the marketing organization at Velocity11 Inc., building a highly differentiated brand and robotics product portfolio that led to industry leading growth and the acquisition by Agilent Technologies.

"I am thrilled to join the world class team at IONpath," Nelson said. "IONpath has the rare combination of groundbreaking technology backed by a team of scientists and engineers that can turn data into insights. Working closely with our pharmaceutical, biotech and academic partners we will deliver on the promise of precision medicine for oncology, immunology, neuroscience and infectious disease markets enabling new discoveries that improve patient care."

About IONpath, Inc. and IONpath Research Services

IONpath, Inc. is revolutionizing tissue imaging to accelerate medical discovery and improve human health. The company's MIBIscope System utilizes Multiplexed Ion Beam Imaging (MIBI) technology, developed at Stanford University, and represents a transformative step in tissue imaging by simultaneously multiplexing up to 40 markers with specificity down to a single cell. Leading research institutes, biotech and pharmaceutical companies are using the MIBIscope in immuno-oncology, immunology and neuroscience research where high-fidelity multiplexed imaging data is needed. In additionto the MIBIscope System enhanced with MIBItracker, IONpath empowers the research and development initiatives of academic, biotech and pharmaceutical partners through its comprehensive Research Services division.

Visit http://www.ionpath.com to learn more.

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Immunology

Monitoring Value of Serum HER2 as a Predictive Biomarker in Patients w | CMAR – Dove Medical Press

June 17, 2020 medical

Pengyu Zhang,1,* Jun Xiao,2,* Yingxin Ruan,3,* Zhenzhen Zhang,1 Xuejun Zhang2

1Department of Blood Transfusion, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Key Laboratory of Breast Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin Medical University, Ministry of Education, Tianjin 300060, Peoples Republic of China; 2Department of Immunology, Key Laboratory of Educational Ministry of China, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, Peoples Republic of China; 3Department of Nephrology, General Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300052, Peoples Republic of China

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence: Xuejun ZhangDepartment of Immunology, Key Laboratory of Educational Ministry of China, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Tianjin Medical University, No. 22 Qixiangtai Road, Heping District, Tianjin 300070, Peoples Republic of ChinaTel +86 151 2280 0672Email xjzhimmunology@163.com

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the monitoring value of serum HER2 in patients with metastatic breast cancer.Patients and Methods: We firstly evaluated the association of serum HER2 levels with tissue HER2 expression and imaging results in 420 breast cancer patients admitted into Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital between April 2016 and December 2018. Secondly, we analyzed serum HER2 levels in breast cancer patients with different metastatic degrees.Results: There is a higher correlation between serum HER2 and tissue HER2 in breast cancer patients with stage III (=0.670, p< 0.001) and stage IV (=0.464, p< 0.001). Serum HER2 levels were significantly associated with imaging results (=0.478, p< 0.001). The ROC curve analysis showed that serum HER2 was superior to other serum markers for predicting metastatic breast cancer. Multinomial logistic regression revealed that the patients with higher serum HER2 levels would be more likely to have breast cancer metastasis.Conclusion: Serum HER2 levels in breast cancer patients can partly reflect tissue HER2 expression and tumor imaging changes, and serum HER2 may be used as a biomarker for evaluating metastatic status in patients with breast cancer.

Keywords: serum HER2, breast cancer, tumor metastasis, biomarker

This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License.By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.

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Immunology

Tonix Pharmaceuticals Announces that Results from Preclinical Studies of TNX-1700 Will be Presented in a Poster at the AACR Virtual Annual Meeting…

June 17, 2020 medical

NEW YORK, June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. (Nasdaq: TNXP) (Tonix or the Company), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced that preclinical results of TNX-1700 (rTFF2) will be presented in a poster at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Virtual Annual Meeting II. The meeting is being held June 22-24, 2020.

Details of poster presentation at AACR 2020:

Title: Stabilized recombinant trefoil factor 2 (TFF2-CTP) enhances anti-tumor activity of PD-1 blockade in mouse models of colorectal cancer

Authors: Woosook Kim, Na Fu, Phaneendra Duddempudi, Zinaida Dubeykovskaya, Steven Almo, Chandan Guha, Seth Lederman, and Timothy Wang

Poster Session: Combination Immunotherapies 4

Date and Time: Monday, June 22, 2020, 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. ET

About Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp.

Tonix is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, licensing, acquiring and developing small molecules and biologics to treat and prevent human disease and alleviate suffering. Tonixs portfolio is primarily composed of central nervous system (CNS) and immunology product candidates. The immunology portfolio includes vaccines to prevent infectious diseases and biologics to address immunosuppression, cancer and autoimmune diseases. The CNS portfolio includes both small molecules and biologics to treat pain, neurologic, psychiatric and addiction conditions. Tonixs lead vaccine candidate, TNX-1800*, is based on the horsepox viral vector platform to protect against COVID-19, primarily by eliciting a T cell response. Tonix expects data from animal studies of TNX-1800 in the fourth quarter of this year. TNX-801*, live horsepox virus vaccine for percutaneous administration, is in development to protect against smallpox and monkeypox and serves as the vector platform on which TNX-1800 is based. Tonixs lead CNS candidate, TNX-102 SL**, is in Phase 3 development for the management of fibromyalgia. The Company expects results from an unblinded interim analysis in September 2020 and topline data in the first quarter of 2021. TNX-102 SL is also in development for agitation in Alzheimers disease and alcohol use disorder (AUD). The agitation in Alzheimers disease program is Phase 2 ready with FDA Fast Track designation, and the development program for AUD is in the pre-Investigational New Drug (IND) application stage. Tonixs programs for treating addiction conditions also include TNX-1300* (T172R/G173Q double-mutant cocaine esterase 200 mg, i.v. solution), which is in Phase 2 development for the treatment of cocaine intoxication and has FDA Breakthrough Therapy designation. TNX-601 CR (tianeptine oxalate controlled-release tablets) is another CNS program, currently in Phase 1 development as a daytime treatment for depression while TNX-1900, intranasal oxytocin, is in development as a non-addictive treatment for migraine and cranio-facial pain. Tonixs preclinical pipeline includes TNX-1600 (triple reuptake inhibitor), a new molecular entity being developed as a treatment for PTSD, TNX-1500 (anti-CD154), a monoclonal antibody being developed to prevent and treat organ transplant rejection and autoimmune conditions, and TNX-1700 (rTFF2), a biologic being developed to treat gastric and pancreatic cancers.

*TNX-1800, TNX-801 and TNX-1300 are investigational new biologics and have not been approved for any indication.

**TNX-102 SL (cyclobenzaprine HCl sublingual tablets) is an investigational new drug and has not been approved for any indication.

This press release and further information about Tonix can be found at http://www.tonixpharma.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as anticipate, believe, forecast, estimate, expect, and intend, among others. These forward-looking statements are based on Tonix's current expectations and actual results could differ materially. There are a number of factors that could cause actual events to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, risks related to failure to obtain FDA clearances or approvals and noncompliance with FDA regulations; delays and uncertainties caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic; risks related to the timing and progress of clinical development of our product candidates; our need for additional financing; uncertainties of patent protection and litigation; uncertainties of government or third party payor reimbursement; limited research and development efforts and dependence upon third parties; and substantial competition. As with any pharmaceutical under development, there are significant risks in the development, regulatory approval and commercialization of new products. Tonix does not undertake an obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement. Investors should read the risk factors set forth in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) on March 24, 2020, and periodic reports filed with the SEC on or after the date thereof. All of Tonix's forward-looking statements are expressly qualified by all such risk factors and other cautionary statements. The information set forth herein speaks only as of the date thereof.

Contacts

Jessica Morris (corporate)Tonix Pharmaceuticalsinvestor.relations@tonixpharma.com(212) 688-9421

Travis Kruse (media)Russo Partnerstravis.kruse@russopartnersllc.com (212) 845-4272

Peter Vozzo (investors)Westwickepeter.vozzo@westwicke.com (443) 213-0505

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Immunology

Race for the discovery of COVID-19 medications – Gnome Qubec, in partnership with IRIC, Universit de Montral and Mila announce funding of $1M in…

June 17, 2020 medical

MONTREAL, June 17, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ -Gnome Qubec, in partnership withthe Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the Universit de Montral, Universit de Montral, Mila Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute and McMaster University, is proud to announce funding for a new research project intended to accelerate the discovery of antiviral COVID-19 medications. Spearheaded by professors MichaelTyers (IRIC/Universit de Montral), YoshuaBengio (Mila/Universit de Montral) and AnneMarinier (IRIC/Universit de Montral), the $1million project was launched in fast-track mode on June 1, 2020.

The project combines genomics, artificial intelligence and medicinal chemistry to discover new inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. The use of genomic screens will lead to a better understanding of the genetic interactions between the virus and human host cells and thereby the identification of new targets for drug discovery. Artificial intelligence will be used to design novel chemical inhibitors against viral proteins and human host proteins on which the virus depends. And finally, with advanced medicinal chemistry, the team will be able to synthesize and test these inhibitors.

"We are very enthusiastic about combining our expertise in the fields of genomics, artificial intelligence and medicinal chemistry to understand how the virus interacts with human cells and to design new inhibitors of viral replication," said Michael Tyers, Principal Investigator at IRIC's Systems Biology and Synthetic Biology Research Unit.

"Medicinal chemistry will play an important role in this research because it will enable us to validate and improve new genomics and AI-based approaches to drug discovery. We are delighted to contribute to research efforts aimed at defeating this global pandemic," added Anne Marinier, Principal Investigator, Director of Medicinal Chemistry and Director of IRIC's Drug Discovery Unit.

Over the long term, this combined genomics/artificial intelligence approach could help significantly accelerate when compared to traditional approaches the discovery of antiviral medications for future pandemics. The approach can also be applied to the development of new treatments for cancer and many other diseases.

"This is an exciting project, first because of its potential to discover medications that could have a significant impact on COVID-19, then because the methodology used could be generalized to research into new therapeutic molecules in other areas. And finally, because the project raises research questions that are way off the beaten path, which will contribute to advancements in science as a whole," explained Yoshua Bengio, Scientific Director of Mila.

By consolidating world-renowned expertise in genomics, artificial intelligence and medicinal chemistry, this project is placing Qubec and Canada at the cutting edge of research in precision medicine. "At Gnome Qubec, we are especially proud of being able to actively contribute to the fight against COVID-19 by supporting such a highly reputable team of researchers. The project clearly demonstrates the important global role Qubec plays in genomics, but also in artificial intelligence," said Daniel Coderre, President and CEO of Gnome Qubec.

Selected as part of a joint Genome Canada-Gnome Qubec program, the project will also receive funding from Mila, IRIC and McMaster University.

Learn more about the project

About Gnome QubecGnome Qubec's mission is to catalyze the development and excellence of genomics research and promote its integration and democratization. It is a pillar of the Qubec bioeconomy and contributes to Qubec's influence and its social and sustainable development. The funds invested by Gnome Qubec are provided by the ministre de l'conomie et de l'Innovation duQubec (MEI), the Government of Canada, through Genome Canada,and private partners. To learn more, visit http://www.genomequebec.com

About the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the Universit de MontralAn ultra-modern research hub and training centre located in the heart of the Universit de Montral, the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer of the Universit de Montral was created in 2003 to shed light on the mechanisms of cancer and discover new, more effective therapies to counter this disease. The IRIC operates according to a model that is unique in Canada. Its innovative approach to research has already led to discoveries that will, over the coming years, have a significant impact on the fight against cancer.

About Universit de Montral Deeply rooted in Montreal and dedicated to its international mission, Universit de Montral is a leading research university. It ranks among the top100 universities worldwide and among the five best French language universities. With its affiliated schools, Polytechnique Montral and HEC Montral, UdeM attracts over $500million in research funding every year, making it one of the top three university research hubs in Canada. UdeM has more than67,000 students, 2,300 professors and researchers, and an active global network of 400,000 alumni.

About Mila Founded by Professor Yoshua Bengio of the Universit de Montral, Mila is a research institute in artificial intelligence which rallies over 500 researchers specializing in the field of deep learning. Based in Montreal, Mila is a non-profit organization recognized globally for its significant contributions to the field of deep learning, particularly in the areas of language modelling, machine translation, object recognition and generative models.

SOURCE Gnome Qubec

For further information: or interviews: Ccile Vignes, Acting Director, Communications, Gnome Qubec, 514 702-2077, [emailprotected]; Nomie Desbois Mackenzie, Communication Advisor, Public Relations, IRIC, 514 475-7682, [emailprotected]; Julie Gazaille, Press attach, Universit de Montral - Bureau des communications et des relations publiques, 514 343-6796, [emailprotected]; Vincent Martineau, Head, Communications and Media Relations, Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, [emailprotected]

http://www.genomequebec.com

Immunology

Tech Start-up Launches Contest, Enabling Scientists to Promote Their Research After the Cancelation of Key Medical Research Meetings this Year -…

June 17, 2020 medical

TORONTO, June 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today BioRender, creator of the first web-based graphical tool for scientists to create publication and presentation-ready figures, announced its inaugural Graphical Abstract Contest, to give scientists a way to promote their research and win prize rewards. As key medical research meetings throughout the world have been canceled, postponed or moved to a virtual environment, BioRender is donating its $50K marketing budget to the science community in the form of cash prizes for a first-of-its-kind, worldwide, scientific art contest.

"This contest comes at a time when all conferences and meetings have been cancelled or postponed, so having the opportunity to be involved with these graphical abstracts has been a refreshing way to explore a wide variety of topics, including the pathology and immunology of SARS-CoV-2 infection," said Jarrod Dudakov, Assistant Professor of Immunology at Fred Hutch Cancer Center. "Graphical abstracts are an increasingly vital aspect of science communication and this competition, and BioRender more generally, contribute significantly toward raising the bar in the research community's progress in visual literacy."

At a time when scientists are racing for answers while also trying to help calm fears around the world, being able to network, share research, and present information in a unified, digestible manner is critical. Social distancing has made this a largely remote effort and presents a unique challenge for the science community to share research. To that end, BioRender created a virtual community to enable the continued sharing of research.

"At BioRender, we have always recognized the need for scientific knowledge to be universally understood and communicated through visuals that are clear, standardized, and accessible," said Shiz Aoki, co-founder and CEO of BioRender. "Our mission is to empower the world to communicate science faster through visuals. Graphical abstracts are quickly becoming the ideal way to lower the friction in communicating complex scientific concepts."

There are more than 5,000 entrants in the contest, which include original research from Stanford Medicine, John Hopkins Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Yale School of Medicine. Today BioRender selected People's Choice Award winners for each category of the contest:

Submitted research will be peer-reviewed and each submission will be eligible for cash prizes of up to $6,000. Submissions to the Graphical Abstract Contest contribute to a public gallery that the scientific community can virtually tour to learn about the latest in research while networking and voting for their favorites to win People's Choice Awards. Lead scientific researchers and renowned experts from around the world will come together to judge submissions within their specialization for visual appeal, clarity, accuracy, complexity, and ease of understanding with the best winning Expert's Choice Awards.

BioRender will announce the Expert's Choice Award finalists on June 17 and all winners will be announced on June 29.

About BioRender

At BioRender, we envision a world where science is universally communicated and understood through visuals. We believe science communication should always be fast, repeatable, and standardized. To help make that vision a reality, we are creating the standard visual language of biology and the suite of tools to communicate it.

Led by CEO and Co-founder Shiz Aoki, the Lead Medical Illustrator for National Geographic for a decade, our team is composed of environmentally and socially conscious engineers, science illustrators, designers, and entrepreneurs who are backed by an incredible group of investors, including Y Combinator.

Recently heralded in Nature as 'a staple of biomedical research drawings', our first product is a web-based graphical tool that enables scientists to create publication and presentation-ready figures up to 50 times faster than traditional tools. With a comprehensive library of 20,000+ icons and intuitive drag-and-drop functionality, this tool enables scientists across 30+ fields of life science to create professional illustrations that more effectively communicates their research.

Media Contact: Interdependence PR for BioRender Samantha Harber; 241745@email4pr.com (406) 272-2627

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Immunology

Starting at the microscopic level: COVID-19 researchers at Brown combat viral proteins – The Brown Daily Herald

June 17, 2020 medical

With the assistance of the COVID-19 Research Seed Fund awards, several projects are diving in to investigate COVID-19 on the microscopic, molecular level.

How pharmaceuticals impact COVID-19

Members of the Brown Experimentalists Against COVID-19 research group, dubbed the BEACON group and led by principal investigator and Professor of Medical Science and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Wafik El-Deiry, have traditionally dedicated their time to cancer research. But in March, they began studying the immune systems response to COVID-19 and pharmaceutical drugs effects on the disease, The Herald previously reported.

The COVID-19 Seed funding has helped the team push their experiments forward. They are investigating how to block the interaction between the spike protein on the viruss surface and the ACE2 receptor on human cells. Fitting together like a lock and key, these two molecules allow the virus to pass into human cells.

The researchers are testing the efficacy of singular drugs as well as combinations that they hope could block this entryway. Targeting the protease protein that enables infectivity by cleaving the spike protein could be one effective approach.

But this approach is hardly the only option. Questions linger about whether some drugs may have the potential to elevate the response from T-cells, the bodys natural defenders, or to alleviate the storm of cytokine proteins that flood the body in response to infection and may lead to respiratory complications in COVID-19 patients. These Brown researchers are seeking answers.

At this point, we have a couple of candidates that look promising for suppressing the (ACE2) receptor and lessening the severity of the cytokine storm, El-Deiry said. The researchers are also looking into how drugs affect the creation of this protein prior to its placement on the cells surface.

BEACONs focus on fostering teamwork extends from its members to its potential solutions to COVID-19: They are exploring how the coupling of different drugs may target the virus at multiple stages of its life cycle.

Remdesivir a drug that has been tested widely in the treatment of COVID-19 and one of the labs drug candidates has shown promising results in other studies, reducing hospitalization stays among the severely ill. Still, the medication has not yet had an equal impact in significantly reducing deaths from the disease, El-Deiry said.

Although remdesivir may prevent the virus from replicating, the BEACON researchers preliminary data suggested that the drug could impact cellular factors and thereby actually increase infectivity before its beneficial effects against the virus kick in. To contend with this counterproductive initial consequence, they are working on pairing this medication with another drug that could first safely counter infection by COVID-19; remdesivir would then function as backup if the virus managed to evade the first drug.

Those at the forefront of the labs COVID-19 research include Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Shengliang Zhang, Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Lanlan Zhou, Teaching Fellow in Medicine Ilyas Sahin, surgical research resident Cassandra Parker, Lindsey Carlsen GS and Kelsey Huntington GS.

We want to contribute useful knowledge that affects how people think about the drugs and what may be possible to bring to the patients, El-Deiry said.

Correlating chitinase-like proteins with COVID-19

The potentially fatal transition from a persistent cough to pneumonia, resulting in a disproportionate number of deaths among the elderly have defined much fear of COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic. A University study has been researching whether the root causes of this transition and trend may be linked in part to a specific chitinase-like protein.

In humans, chitinase-like proteins bind present chitin molecules, and prior research has suggested that these proteins may thereby affect immunity, according to a 2011 study by Ober et al. Chitinase enzymes break down chitin, the material that composes the hard shells covering some insects, explained a principal investigator of the study and Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Chun Lee, who formerly studied chitinase independent of COVID-19.

Having higher chitinase-like protein levels, which is the case for older individuals and those with other diseases like high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes and cancer, could explain why some people have a higher susceptibility to COVID-19 and more extreme symptom severity, according to co-principal investigator, Senior Vice President for Health Affairs and Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Jack Elias, who has come across patients receiving lung-related critical care throughout his years as a pulmonary physician.

The team of University researchers is studying whether having a larger number of these proteins may have deleterious consequences by regulating the protease protein and the receptor molecule for SARS-CoV-2 on cells so in order to aid viral entry, Lee and Elias explained.

The researchers who also include co-principal investigators Assistant Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Bing Ma and Associate Professor of Medicine Bharat Ramratnam 86 MD93 are determining the exact relationship between the chitinase-like protein and vulnerability to the new virus through a series of experiments involving lung cells and animal models.

We set this whole system up to study cancer, Elias said. But the more we sat and talked to each other and read the literature (on COVID-19), the more we kept saying, Oh, thats like what were studying.

Results from pilot experiments reassured the researchers that their hypotheses were worth pursuing.

Their transgenic mice mice which have been experimentally modified to express a gene of interest have been altered to express the gene coding for the chitinase-like protein, which the researchers can regulate, turning on the gene has led to an increase of expression of (the ACE2) receptor and protease, Elias said meaning that when more of these proteins are present, more receptors for COVID-19 are active. The receptor is also appearing on cells outside of the lungs upon the expression of this gene, and the researchers aim to identify the locations throughout the body where chitinase has a regulatory role.

The team also plans to measure the quantity of the protein in human blood serum samples, Elias and Lee said. These people can then be followed to see whether they become infected and whether the COVID-19 patients recover quickly or end up in critical condition. The outcomes can be linked to their chitinase-like protein levels to analyze whether a correlation between the two exists.

If such a relationship is found, understanding this pattern could allow health care providers to use the protein measurements as biomarkers indicators of how COVID-19 would likely run its course in different people, Lee and Elias said.

The researchers are also testing drug efficacy and how strongly specific antibody molecules, which they have developed, can bind to their protein of interest. This route of investigation could lead to a means of preventing the chitinase enzyme from having such a negative effect in COVID-19 patients.

Lee added that the Seed funding has been really instrumental for initiating this unexpected project.

Studying the structural proteins of COVID-19

While discussions about COVID-19 research have often hovered around the viruss signature spike protein, another team of University researchers have instead been investigating the less-studied nucleocapsid N protein, a protein which the viral genome wraps around, now with the assistance of the COVID-19 Research Seed Fund. They intend to leave no stone unturned, said Assistant Professor of Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology and Biotechnology Mandar Naik, a co-principal investigator of the study who is familiar with coronaviruses from his prior work on SARS-CoV.

COVID-19 uses RNA to carry its genetic material and replicate. This RNA associates with the N protein, which contributes to the function, quality and packaging of the viruss genome, according to Naik and Nicolas Fawzi, co-principal investigator and associate professor of molecular pharmacology, physiology and biotechnology.

If we could understand how does (the N protein) work? and what might we do to disrupt that function?, that would definitely be a potential avenue for therapeutic agents, Fawzi said.

The principal investigators, several University graduate students and laboratory staff are now looking for compounds that could have the capability to become effective drugs for treating COVID-19 by inhibiting this protein. This disruption could interfere with the arrangement of the RNA and thereby impede its activity, or it may affect the proteins tendency to join together into larger molecules, Fawzi and Naik said.

Co-principal investigator and Associate Professor of Biology Gerwald Jogl compiled a list of hundreds of candidates from analyses using a computer software that indicates which molecules might successfully inhibit the N protein, which Naik intends to test using the N protein in the lab. Fawzi will then use these compounds to determine their effects on the RNA-protein interactions.

Professor of Medical Science and Neurology, Director of Cancer Signaling and Vice Chair of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry Walter Atwood, also a co-principal investigator, will also apply his expertise in virology to contribute to experiments on the drug compounds activity within the actual COVID-19 virus. Any ensuing clinical trials on patients would likely involve further collaborations, Naik added.

The Brown response on all levels was amazing, Jogl said. He added that all of the COVID-19-related research projects are coordinated and readily exchanging information, giving us a feel that this is a community tackling the issue.

The researchers are studying other proteins as well, such as the associated membrane M protein and the envelope E protein on the viruss surface, Naik said. They are hopeful that this work will not only identify potential drug candidates for COVID-19 patients but also augment scientists understanding of a broader category of viruses that rely on these proteins.

COVID-19 is unfortunately not going to be the last virus thats going to come around, so if we learn something about virus biology in general, then next time we (will be) better off, Naik said.

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Starting at the microscopic level: COVID-19 researchers at Brown combat viral proteins - The Brown Daily Herald

Immunology

Follow the Money: $100M to DNAnexus, Investments in Machine-Learning for Drug Discovery, More – Bio-IT World

June 17, 2020 medical

By Bio-IT World Staff

June 17, 2020 |Big investments this past month in machine-learning driven drug discovery frominsitro, andDNAnexussand cloud-based informatics platform. Vaccine funding forGreenLightBiosciences,boron drug delivery,and moreof the latest funding updates from across life sciences, clinical trials, the diagnostics industries.

$143M:Machine-Learning-Enabled Drug Discovery

insitro, a San Francisco machine-learning driven drug discovery and development company, has raised $143 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing. The financing was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from new investors Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, as well as funds managed by BlackRock,CasdinCapital, HOF Capital,WuXiAppTecsCorporate Venture Fund, and other undisclosed investors. Current investors also participated in the financing. Proceeds from the financing will be used to continue to buildinsitrosfoundations of technology and automation, enabling data generation at larger scale and further expanding the capabilities to generate predictive models of human disease. In addition, this capital will be used to prosecute newly identified, genetically validated targets, to identify patient segmentation biomarkers, and to advance therapeutics ingenetically-definedpatient populations.insitroalso plans to establish new, synergistic industry partnerships and build additional ML-enabled capabilities along the R&D value chain in order to accelerate drug discovery and development.

$120M:Speeding Supply Chain

Rapid Micro Biosystems, Lowell, Mass., has completed a $120 million financing, including an equity investment led by Ally Bridge Group, along with Endeavour Vision and existing investors including Bain Capital Life Sciences, Longitude Capital,XerayaCapital and Asahi Kasei. Proceeds will enable the company to meet growing demand for its automated microbial detection platform and support new product development for pandemic response. It will also accelerate new product development of a rapid sterility test for the final release of products which can significantly shorten the supply chain by accelerating deployment of biologics, vaccines and cell therapies to patients, and fund further commercial expansion in the United States, Europe and Asia.

$119M:mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine

GreenLightBiosciences, Boston, has closed two recent funding rounds: a $17 million special purpose funding round in May and a $102 million round in June. Both rounds come from new and existing investors. The May $17 million round was directed toward building out its scalable mRNA production capability targeting the production of billions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine. In addition to expanding its manufacturing capacity,GreenLightis developing several differentiated mRNA vaccine candidates against SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19. mRNA-based vaccines offer the potential to address pandemics because of shorter pre-clinical development times compared to traditional vaccines. The June $102 million round is broader, meant to rapidly expand production of its RNA products for agricultural and life sciences applications. Participating investors in the May round include Flu Lab,XerayaCapital, and Baird Capital. Participating investors in the June round include Morningside Ventures, agriculture venture firm S2G Ventures, Cormorant Asset Management, Continental Grain Company, Fall Line Capital, Tao Capital Partners, Baird Capital, MLS Capital Fund II, Lewis and ClarkAgriFood, andLupaSystems.

$100M:Cloud-Based Informatics Platform

DNAnexus, Mountain View, Calif.,has closed a $100 million financing round. The financing was led by Perceptive Advisors andNorthpondVentures, joining existing investors GV,ForesiteCapital, TPG Capital, and First Round Capital, and first-time equity investor Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. These funds will advance the companys growth globally, enablingDNAnexusto further serve leading healthcare and life science organizations. TheDNAnexusPlatform accelerates digital transformation by simplifying complex data analysis, clinical data management, and insights at a scale not previously possible.

$100M:Health Monitoring System, COVID-19 Test

Cue Health, San Diego, has closed its Series C financing round, raising $100 million in new capital. Investors in Cues Series C include Menlo Park-basedDechengCapital,ForesiteCapital, Madrone Capital Partners, Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JJDC, Inc., ACME Capital and other investment firms. Proceeds from the financing will be used to complete development, validation, and scale-up of manufacturing of the Cue Health Monitoring System and Cue Test Cartridges. Cues operations, including manufacturing, are vertically integrated and currently occupy approximately 55,000sqft in San Diego, CA USA. The company plans to increase its footprint to over 110,000sqft to better support development and commercialization of its products, including a fast, portable, and easy-to-use molecular test for COVID-19, which is currently under review by the FDA for an Emergency Use Authorization.

$70M:NGS Automation, Epidemic Response

GinkgoBioworks, Boston, announced a $70 million investment from Illumina and existing Ginkgo investors, General Atlantic and Viking Global Investors to build infrastructure to enable rapid epidemic response. Next-generation sequencing, coupled with Ginkgo's hardware and software that is designed for the large-scale automation of biological experiments, has the potential to significantly increase COVID-19 testing capacity, contributing to the testing volume that many public health experts believe is necessary for slowing the spread of the virus. Ginkgo is deploying its resources toward building an epidemic monitoring and diagnostic testing facility in its Boston Seaport labs, developing processes that use Illumina's NGS technology for large-scale testing, in addition to whole genome sequencing and environmental monitoring. Currently in an early build phase, Ginkgo aims to have NGS-based testing capacity available to help reopen schools and businesses.

$60M:Series AStructural Immunology Platform

VentusTherapeutics, Boston and Montreal,announced a $60 million Series A financing led by founding investor Versant Ventures with participation by GV (formerly Google Ventures). Proceeds will be used to advance three pipeline programs and to expand the companys structural immunology platform to pursue previously intractable drug targets.Ventus structural immunology platform is based on protein engineering capabilities with the necessary know-how to generate and express stable monomers of known targets, including the inflammasomes and nucleic acid sensing targets. This in turn enables the elucidation of protein structures and the implementation of direct biochemical and biophysical assays that previously did not exist.

$50M:Cloud R&D Platform

Benchling,San Francisco,announced it closed $50 million in Series D funding led byAlkeonand joined by new investors Spark Capital, Lux Capital and ICONIQ Partners, as well as existing investors Thrive Capital, Benchmark and Menlo Ventures.Benchlingwill use the investment to build advanced product capabilities, expand its international presence, and drive adoption across leading R&D organizations, bringing the power of modern-day software to drive the rapid transformation of the life sciences industry.

$30M:Boron Drug Delivery

TAE Life Sciences (TLS), Santa Monica, Calif., has launched its in-house boron delivery drug development program supported by an influx of $30M in funding. The initial phase of the B-round funds comes from a consortium of investors including ARTIS Ventures, who led the companys initial funding in 2018. TLS is a biological-targeting radiation therapy company developing next-generation boron neutron capture therapy solutions (BNCT). This investment will enable TLS to move beyond the current boron-10 drug, BPA, and speed development of novel proprietary boron-10 target drugsat the same time thatit hones its neutron beam accelerator technology for BNCT. BNCT is a particle therapy designed to selectively destroy cancer cells without damaging neighboring healthy cells. The TLS diversified drug program objectives include improved targeting of cancer cells, increased boron accumulation in target cells, longer boron retention time, and more boron homogeneity.

$12M:Solid Cancer Monitoring, Treatment

C2i Genomics, New York, has raised $12 million in its Series A financing. The financing was led byCasdinCapital and joined by additional new investors including NFX Capital, The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research and other investors. Proceeds from the financing will be used to fund the development andclinical validation of C2i Genomics personalized, real-time solution for monitoring recurrence and treatment response for various types of solid cancers. C2i Genomics innovative solution is based on research performed at the New York Genome Center (NYGC) and Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) by Dr. AsafZviran, along with Dr. Dan Landau, core faculty member at the NYGC and assistant professor of Medicine at WCM, who serves as scientific co-founder and member of C2is scientific advisory board. The technology has been validated through longitudinal clinical cohorts in collaboration with cancer centers in New York and Boston and was recently published inNature Medicine(DOI: 10.1038/s41591-020-0915-3). This proof-of-concept research was supported by a 2017 grant from The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research.

$10M: Series C Extension for High-Definition PCR

ChromaCode, Carlsbad, Calif., announced a $10 million Series C extension with an investment from Adjuvant Capital. The Adjuvant investment brings the companys total Series C funding to $38 million. Managing Partner Jenny Yip will joinChromaCodesBoard of Directors. Funding from this round will support global expansion and continued development ofChromaCodeshigh-definition PCR platform (HDPCR), through which the company recently launched a high-throughput SARS-CoV-2 Assay. Adjuvant joins existingChromaCodeinvestorsNorthpondVentures, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Domain Associates, Windham Ventures, Okapi Ventures, Moore Venture Partners and the California Institute of Technology.

$6.2M:Antibiotic Resistance Diagnostics

Day Zero Diagnostics, Boston, was awarded up to $6.2 million in non-dilutive funding from Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X), a global non-profit partnership dedicated to accelerating early antibacterial research and development to address the rising global threat of drug-resistant bacteria. Day Zero uses genome sequencing and machine learning to combat the rise of antibiotic-resistant infections. The new funds will support the development of Day Zeros diagnostic system that is intended to help physicians quickly and accurately diagnose and treat life-threatening bacterial infections. The system promises to help patients with severe infections receive the most effective antibiotic treatment on the first day they are admitted to the hospitalday zerorather than being treated with multiple days of toxic broad-spectrum antibiotics to prevent septic shock.

$5M:Immuno-Oncology Drugs

Kineta, Seattle, Wash., is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the development of novel immunotherapies in oncology, neuroscience and biodefense. The company has successfully closed its most recent funding round totaling $5 million. This round was led by the Bellevue-basedSchlaepferFamily Foundation. Proceeds from this investment round will be used to fund the early development ofKineta'simmuno-oncology drug programs.Kinetais focused on developing new, best-in-class immunotherapies to address hard-to-treat cancers in a variety of solid tumors.

$2.5M:NCI Grant for Bioimaging

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has been awarded a $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Healths National Cancer Institute (NCI) to continue to develop new and innovative bioimaging techniques that also harness the power of machine learning methods. The grant will support the further development of a new imaging technique that will allow cancer biologists to observe the molecular, metabolic, and functional behavior of breast cancer cells when a targeted therapeuticspecificallyhuman epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)is introduced. It will be used in preclinical research using non-human models.

$2.5M:NIH Grant For Viral Tests

University of Texas,Dallas received a $2.5 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant for work on respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The grant, spread over five years, will support efforts to advance a novel infectious disease diagnostic approach, develop prototypes, and evaluate the method using clinical specimens. The goal is to develop a more accurate test that could be done while a patient is in the doctors office, although the work is several steps from that point. The method uses gold nanoparticles, which attach to antibody molecules that can recognize and bind with protein molecules found on the surfaces of viruses. Researchers apply short laser pulses to activate the nanoparticles to generate nanoscale bubbles, or nanobubbles. An accumulation of nanobubbles signals the presence of a virus.

$1.8M:Dental Tissue Engineering

LaunchPadMedical, Lowell, Mass.,has received follow-on support of up to $1.8 million from the Michigan-Pittsburgh-Wyss Regenerative Medicine Resource Center, which was funded by NIHs National Institute of Dental and Cranial Research (U24-DE029462) to improve the translation of promising tissue engineering and regenerative medicine technologies for dental, oral, and craniofacial clinical practice.This grant will allow the company to conduct a pivotal animal study and generate all the other required data to file an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) application with the FDA to start a clinical trial.

$1.7M:Gas-Sensing Gut Capsule

AtmoBiosciences, Melbourne and Sydney, Australia has raised a further A$2.5 million in an oversubscribed funding round, supplementing an initial seed raise in March 2019.Atmosingestible gas-sensing capsule continuously measures clinically important gaseous biomarkers produced by the microbiome in the gastrointestinal system. This data is transmitted wirelessly to the cloud for aggregation and analysis.Atmowill use the funds for continuedproduct development, manufacture of thesecond generationgas-sensing capsule, and pilot clinical trials aimed at developing a path to regulatory approval.

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Follow the Money: $100M to DNAnexus, Investments in Machine-Learning for Drug Discovery, More - Bio-IT World

Immunology

Soligenix to Present at the MedInvest Infectious Disease and Immunology Investor Conference – P&T Community

June 14, 2020 medical

PRINCETON, N.J., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Soligenix, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNGX) (Soligenix or the Company), a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing products to treat rare diseases where there is an unmet medical need, announced today that its Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Oreola Donini, PhD, will deliver a presentation discussing Soligenix's vaccine efforts, including a COVID-19 vaccine development program, at the MedInvest Infectious Disease and Immunology Investor Conference, held virtually on June 15 and 16, 2020.

Oral Presentation:

Thermostabilized Protein Vaccines with Applications in Ricin Toxin, Filoviruses and Coronavirusespresented by Oreola Donini, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, Soligenix on June 16 at 2:30 PM EDT. A question and answer period will follow the presentation.

A recording of the presentation will be available on the Soligenix website after June 16.

For more information about the MedInvest Infectious Disease and Immunology Investor Conference, please refer to the conference website at https://www.medinvestconferences.com.

About Soligenix, Inc.

Soligenix is a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing products to treat rare diseases where there is an unmet medical need. Our Specialized BioTherapeutics business segment is developing SGX301 as a novel photodynamic therapy utilizing safe visible light for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, our first-in-class innate defense regulator (IDR) technology, dusquetide (SGX942) for the treatment of oral mucositis in head and neck cancer, and proprietary formulations of oral beclomethasone 17,21-dipropionate (BDP) for the prevention/treatment of gastrointestinal (GI) disorders characterized by severe inflammation including pediatric Crohn's disease (SGX203) and acute radiation enteritis (SGX201).

Our Public Health Solutions business segment includes active development programs for RiVax, our ricin toxin vaccine candidate, SGX943, our therapeutic candidate for antibiotic resistant and emerging infectious disease, and our research programs to identify and develop novel vaccine candidates targeting viral infection including Ebola, Marburg and SARS-CoV-2 (the cause of COVID-19). The development of our vaccine programs incorporates the use of our proprietary heat stabilization platform technology, known as ThermoVax. To date, this business segment has been supported with government grant and contract funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the Defense Threat Reduction Agents (DTRA) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

For further information regarding Soligenix, Inc., please visit the Company's website at http://www.soligenix.com.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements that reflect Soligenix, Inc.'s current expectations about its future results, performance, prospects and opportunities, including but not limited to, potential market sizes, patient populations and clinical trial enrollment. Statements that are not historical facts, such as "anticipates," "estimates," "believes," "hopes," "intends," "plans," "expects," "goal," "may," "suggest," "will," "potential," or similar expressions, are forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results in future periods to differ materially from what is expressed in, or implied by, these statements, such as experienced with the COVID-19 outbreak. Soligenix cannot assure you that it will be able to successfully develop, achieve regulatory approval for or commercialize products based on its technologies, particularly in light of the significant uncertainty inherent in developing therapeutics and vaccines against bioterror threats, conducting preclinical and clinical trials of therapeutics and vaccines, obtaining regulatory approvals and manufacturing therapeutics and vaccines, that product development and commercialization efforts will not be reduced or discontinued due to difficulties or delays in clinical trials or due to lack of progress or positive results from research and development efforts, that it will be able to successfully obtain any further funding to support product development and commercialization efforts, including grants and awards, maintain its existing grants which are subject to performance requirements, enter into any biodefense procurement contracts with the US Government or other countries, that it will be able to compete with larger and better financed competitors in the biotechnology industry, that changes in health care practice, third party reimbursement limitations and Federal and/or state health care reform initiatives will not negatively affect its business, or that the US Congress may not pass any legislation that would provide additional funding for the Project BioShield program. In addition, there can be no assurance as to the timing or success of the Phase 3 clinical trial of SGX942 (dusquetide) as a treatment for oral mucositis in patients with head and neck cancer receiving chemoradiation therapy, or any of our other clinical/preclinical trials. Despite the statistically significant result achieved in the SGX301 Phase 3 clinical trial for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, there can be no assurance that a marketing authorization from the FDA or EMA will be successful. Further, there can be no assurance that RiVax will qualify for a biodefense Priority Review Voucher (PRV) or that the prior sales of PRVs will be indicative of any potential sales price for a PRV for RiVax. Also, no assurance can be provided that the Company will receive or continue to receive non-dilutive government funding from grants and contracts that have been or may be awarded or for which the Company will apply in the future. These and other risk factors are described from time to time in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, Soligenix's reports on Forms 10-Q and 10-K. Unless required by law, Soligenix assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/soligenix-to-present-at-the-medinvest-infectious-disease-and-immunology-investor-conference-301072066.html

SOURCE Soligenix, Inc.

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Soligenix to Present at the MedInvest Infectious Disease and Immunology Investor Conference - P&T Community