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Georgia State University, GeoVax collaborate to develop therapeutic HBV vaccine
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A partnership between the Georgia State University Research Foundation and GeoVax Labs Inc. will support the development of a therapeutic vaccine for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B infection, according to a press release.
Researchers will use novel tools, including preS VLP technology from Georgia State University and GeoVax’ MVA-VLP vaccine platform, to design, construct and characterize multiple hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine candidates. Vaccine effectiveness will be assessed with VLP design and functional assays developed by Ming Luo, PhD, professor in the department of chemistry at Georgia State University, conducted in collaboration with Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School.
“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 release. “Globally, chronic hepatitis B affects more than 250 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 this problem.”
In addition to the therapeutic HBV vaccine, GeoVax’s MVA-VLP vector platform also is being used to develop preventive vaccines for Zika virus and hemorrhagic fever viruses such as Ebola, Sudan, Marburg and Lassa. The platform was previously used in multiple clinical trials of GeoVax’s preventive HIV vaccine.
“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 release. “The combined technologies and already defined functional assays will serve to rapidly test this innovative concept.”
Disclosure: Guirakhoo is an employee of GeoVax. Infectious Disease News was unable to confirm other relevant financial disclosures at the time of publication.