31 March 2012
Parabon announced today that it has demonstrated the feasibility of extending its Essemblix™ Drug Development Platform to produce Essemblix-V, a platform for creating artificial vaccines from a predefined set of "building block molecules" assembled on DNA origami. Given an epitope for a potential biothreat agent, Parabon's Essemblix-V will allow the production of artificial epitopes (hereafter "mimotopes") that can mimic the original epitope sufficiently to bind target antibodies with high affinity. Additionally, Essemblix-V will allow mimotopes to be arranged on origami in complex presentation patterns known to elicit rapid and potent immune response via T cell-independent activation. The effort was funded by the US Department of Defense's Department of Health Program. Parabon has applied for Phase II funding to further enhance, test and commercialize the capability.
1 The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is a highly competitive program that encourages domestic small businesses to engage in Federal Research/Research and Development (R/R&D) that has the potential for commercialization. Through a competitive awards-based program, SBIR enables small businesses to explore their technological potential and provides the incentive to profit from its commercialization. By including qualified small businesses in the nation's R&D arena, high-tech innovation is stimulated and the United States gains entrepreneurial spirit as it meets its specific research and development needs. A company that receives SBIR funding is eligible for sole source grants and contracts with the Federal government for services and products used on, developed in or derived from the SBIR effort.
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