SBIR Phase I: Rapid Development of a Protein Vaccine for COVID-19

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is the development of a vaccine to prevent infection from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The proposed project is a novel vaccine that activates multiple components of the immune system, potentially more effective than other SAR-CoV-2 vaccines, and using a well-understood approach as a protein-based vaccine. This SBIR Phase I project will advance a protein vaccine based upon a platform technology combining two functions, activating the immune system and targeting it to attack to a specific pathogen or cell. The platform has a modular design that allows it to be re-engineered, in a cassette-like fashion, to redirect the attack to different targets. Applications for the technology include vaccines against viruses and cells infected by viruses, as well as against specific cancer types. The vaccine can be rapidly generated and easily re-engineered. The focus of this project will be to produce this SARS-CoV-2 targeted protein vaccine utilizing an immune-activating platform with the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein inserted into the targeting domain of the platform. The will be followed by studies to demonstrate the vaccine candidate activity in an in vitro model and an animal model. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.