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Multiplex Immunoassays in the Development of Vaccines Against Enteric Pathogens

Award Information
Agency: Department of Defense
Branch: Army
Contract: W81XWH-12-C-0099
Agency Tracking Number: A2-5292
Amount: $1,049,994.00
Phase: Phase II
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: A11-125
Solicitation Number: 2011.3
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2011
Award Year: 2013
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2013-07-01
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2016-01-20
Small Business Information
P.O. Box 100
Ithaca, NY 14850
United States
DUNS: 000000000
HUBZone Owned: Yes
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: Yes
Principal Investigator
 Kathie Berghorn
 Senior Scientist
 (607) 272-0002
 kberghorn@agavebio.com
Business Contact
 Noe Salazar
Title: President
Phone: (512) 656-6200
Email: nsalazar@agavebio.com
Research Institution
 Stub
Abstract

Bacterial enteric pathogens causing travelers diarrhea (TD) in developing countries include enterotoxigenic E. coli (50%), Camplyobacter jejuni, Shigella sonnei and Shigella flexneri, while Norovirus is a common viral cause. High risk regions for TD include areas where US service members are deployed. The rapid identification of immune responses to enteric pathogens would be advantageous to discovering potential vaccine candidates and defining exposures to enteric infections of interest. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) are the current gold standard to measure serum antibody titers in response to enteric pathogens. However, ELISAs have significant limitations preventing their application in high-throughput screening of large sample numbers for multiple pathogens simultaneously. The difficulty of multiplexing ELISAs in a single well leads to increased usage of serum sample as well as reagents. Therefore, an assay is needed that can be multiplexed to detect several different pathogens in a single well and requires minimal technician time to perform. In this Phase I, Agave BioSystems demonstrated proof-of-concept for the use of flow cytometry microspheres in a multiplex assay to determine immunogenicity of candidate vaccines as well as prior pathogen exposure in blood. This novel multiplex microsphere-based assay will cover the most common causative pathogens of diarrhea.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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