Omniose, a Saint Louis, MO-based company developing polysaccharide conjugate vaccines against serious bacterial threats, received a $3.6M grant.
The award came from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
The company intends to use the funds for the development of a Klebsiella pneumoniae vaccine.
Led by CEO Timothy Cooke and Chief Scientific Officer Christian Harding, Ph.D., Omniose has developed a bioconjugate vaccine platform that enables the precise enzymatic attachment of virtually any bacterial polysaccharide (sugar) antigen to engineered carrier proteins within a single E. coli cell. The company is utilizing its proprietary bioconjugation platform to develop novel polysaccharide protein conjugate vaccines targeting K. pneumoniae. K. pneumoniae produces multiple surface polysaccharides, including a capsular polysaccharide (capsule) and a lipopolysaccharide decorated with an O-antigen polysaccharide (O-antigen). Both capsule and the O-antigen are known K. pneumoniae virulence factors and were previously identified as potential vaccine candidates. Funds from this award as well as other NIH grants awarded to Omniose will support the development and IND-enabling studies of bioconjugate vaccines that target the most clinically relevant capsular polysaccharides and O-antigen polysaccharides of K. pneumoniae.
Klebsiella pneumoniae is a leading cause of life-threatening sepsis in newborns as well as healthcare-associated infections, including pneumonia, bloodstream infections, wound or surgical site infections, and meningitis. The disease has developed resistance to many classes of antimicrobials and was attributed to or associated with an estimated 600,000 deaths globally in 2019.
FinSMEs
11/10/2022