The SBIR grant, valued at $600,000 over 2 years, will support work being conducted at GenVec, the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington. Work under the grant will focus on testing adenovirus vectors containing novel HSV-2 antigens. These vaccine candidates will be evaluated for their ability to generate the type of immune responses, CD8 T-cell responses, in mice and nonhuman primates that are expected to lead to protection.
Rick King, senior vice president of R&D at GenVec, said: “GenVec’s adenovector technology is ideally suited for vaccine strategies that induce strong T-cell mediated immune responses. We are extremely pleased that this grant gives us the opportunity to work with the premier investigators in the development of HSV-2 vaccines.”