At the 30th Annual Congress of the European Society for Gene and Cell Therapy in Brussels this week, researchers presented both preclinical and clinical strategies for applying gene therapy to a functional HIV cure. At a Wednesday session on Infectious Diseases & Vaccines, Alessio Nahmad, of Tabby Therapeutics Ltd., described using B cells edited to express broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) 3BNC117 to deliver high titers of antibodies in mice.

At the 30th Annual Congress of the European Society for Gene and Cell Therapy in Brussels this week, researchers presented both preclinical and clinical strategies for applying gene therapy to a functional HIV cure. At a Wednesday session on Infectious Diseases & Vaccines, Alessio Nahmad, of Tabby Therapeutics Ltd., described using B cells edited to express broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) 3BNC117 to deliver high titers of antibodies in mice.

Codagenix Inc. announced that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), through the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command and the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, has awarded the company $5.88 million to advance the development of its Codavax-Denv, a tetravalent live attenuated dengue vaccine program.

Appili Therapeutics Inc. has secured a commitment for the second stage of funding for ATI-1701 from the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA), who is working in partnership with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the funding agency.

Borrelia burgdorferi, one of the bacteria species causing Lyme disease, has a small genome and is therefore highly dependent on its hosts to obtain many necessary metabolites. Its small genome makes B. burgdorferi an attractive candidate for developing narrow-spectrum antibiotics targeting those essential genes. The use of narrow-spectrum antibiotics may reduce the risk of side effects and the spread of antimicrobial resistances compared with traditional, long-term antibiotic treatments.

Researchers from Eradivir Inc. and affiliated organizations presented the discovery and preclinical evaluation of EV-21, a dual mechanism antiviral immunotherapy for the treatment of influenza infections. EV-21 was designed as a ligand-targeted drug conjugate, developed by linking the neuraminidase inhibitor zanamivir to two distinct haptens that bind to two different naturally occurring antibodies in humans. As a result, the candidate acts though a dual mechanism of action, which consists of potent recruitment of the human immune system to recognize and destroy free viruses and virus-infected cells.

The World Health Organization recently endorsed an economical malaria vaccine with a 75% effectiveness rate, which costs less than half of the initial vaccine (RTS,S/AS01) created two years ago. The new vaccine, R21/Matrix-M, developed by the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India, marks a significant milestone after decades of scientific research.

Qnovia Inc. has entered into a drug development collaboration with the University of Virginia (UVA) to advance novel inhaled drug candidates.