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Georgia State, GeoVax partner to develop HBV vaccine
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The Georgia State University Research Foundation announced it will partner with GeoVax Labs in the development of a therapeutic vaccine for chronic hepatitis B virus infection.
Georgia State will combine its preS VLP technology with GeoVax’s MVA-VLP vaccine platform to design, construct and characterize multiple vaccine candidates.
“Unique VLP design and functional assays,” developed by Ming Luo, PhD, professor in the department of chemistry at Georgia State, “performed in collaboration with Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, will provide key information on vaccine effectiveness,” according to a press release.
“My team’s efforts continue to unveil the molecular mechanism of immune responses to HBV infection and we are excited to partner with GeoVax to further the development of a hepatitis B therapeutic vaccine,” Luo said in the press release. “Globally, chronic hepatitis B affects more than 240 million people and contributes to nearly 686,000 deaths worldwide each year. By joining forces with GeoVax, we will apply our highly complementary sets of expertise in an effort to address the problem.”
Luo and colleagues will generate the preS VLP using GeoVax’s MVA-VLP vector platform to develop the vaccine. The safety of this platform has been demonstrated in several human clinical trials of the company’s preventive HIV vaccine, and is also being used to develop preventive vaccines against Zika virus and hemorrhagic fever viruses like Ebola, Sudan, Marburg and Lassa, according to the press release.
“We are fortunate to have the collaboration with nearby Georgia State University and Dr. Ming Luo,” Farshad Guirakhoo, chief scientific officer at GeoVax, said in the press release. “The combined technologies and already defined functional assays will serve to rapidly test this innovative concept.”
The CDC estimates between 700,000 to 1.4 million individuals in the U.S. have chronic HBV infection, and there are about 20,000 new infections every year, according to the press release.
Disclosures: Guirakhoo is employed by GeoVax. Healio.com/Hepatology was unable to confirm Luo’s relevant financial disclosures at the time of publication.