Tiba Biotech was mentioned in the recent edition of THE VIRAL MOST WANTED, a series of articles posted by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) focusing on some of the most dangerous viruses that have put humanity at greatest risk today, and are likely to produce the next pandemic tomorrow.

After over five years of government funded research in nucleic acid delivery for vaccine applications, and progress with our proprietary RNABL vaccine delivery platform, the Tiba team has been advancing a library of dendrimer-based nanoparticles that demonstrate greater gene expression but with lower immunogenicity. More recently ,Tiba was awarded a grant by CEPI to support the design, development, and preclinical evaluation of an RNA vaccine candidate against Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV), a flavivirus related to dengue, yellow fever and West Nile viruses. This is not the first flavivirus for Tiba, dating back to earlier M.I.T published work on the Zika virus. Today, with National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) funding, the Tiba team is also working on a prototype vaccine against the Powassan Virus, a rare but highly dangerous tick borne flavivirus.

Most infections are mild and do not progress to severe disease, but about one in four symptomatic cases of Japanese Encephalitis infection are fatal.

— Kate Kelland

In this latest edition, The Flaviviruses, CEPI’s Kate Kelland writes: “Japanese Encephalitis . . . target(s) the brain, leading to inflammation of the brain – encephalitis – and potentially life-altering neurological consequences. Most infections are mild and do not progress to severe disease, but about one in four symptomatic cases of Japanese Encephalitis infection are fatal.” Highlighting CEPI’s pandemic preparedness program across this family of pandemic risk, the article cited to Tiba’s Biotech’s next-generation RNA vaccine against JEV.

CEPI is advancing the development of several rapid-response vaccine platforms and aims to validate them by using them to create and test vaccine candidates against Japanese Encephalitis

 

For a deeper dive into this area of pandemic threat, see Kate Kelland’s edition, and other CEPI areas of interest, in THE VIRAL MOST WANTED and its growing library of informative news listings.