Dr. Gregory Tobin (BMI, Dr. Michael Daly (USU), and Dr. Mark Scher (HJF)) are named on the award, and Dr. Aoife Cullen (HJF), Director of the Joint Office of Technology Transfer, prepared the submission.
February 3, 2021
The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. (HJF) and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), along with Biological Mimetics, Inc. (BMI), received the prestigious 2021 Federal Laboratory Consortium's (FLC) Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer., for a new gamma radiation vaccine development platform created by Dr. Michael J. Daly, Professor of Pathology at USU. The award was given for the "Novel Vaccine Production Using Unique Technology Derived from Radiation-resistant Bacteria."
Daly and his colleagues' technology uses a powerful manganese (Mn) antioxidant they developed from the remarkably radiation-resistant bacterium, Deinococcus radiodurans, in preparing whole-virus or whole-bacteria vaccines. In collaboration withBMI under a series of Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs), the D. radiodurans Mn antioxidant was used in preparing an inactivated vaccine against the multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterium, Acinetobacter baumannii, known to cause a range of life-threatening illnesses, such as pneumonia, septicemia and wound infections.
The World Health Organization lists A. baumannii in their highest category of pathogens posing an imminent threat to human health. Through the collaboration between Daly's team and BMI, a protective vaccine is under development that could potentially prevent battlefield infections, as well as hospital-acquired infections in routine surgical patients. Dr. Daly's platform technology has also been used to develop vaccines against RNA viruses, such as the Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus, Chikungunya virus and Sabin polioviruses, as well as bacteria, such as methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
Dr. Tobin, President of BMI, commented, "A. baumannii infections cause serious illnesses and deaths in both immunocompromised patients and wounded warfighters. Treatment options are very limited, and a vaccine is urgently needed. Our collaborative work aims to plug this gap. We are optimistic that this technology will lead to the first effective vaccine against this dangerous pathogen."
The FLC presents the Excellence in Technology Transfer Award annually to laboratory employees and collaborating parties who have accomplished outstanding work in the process of transferring federally developed technology. The FLC is the congressionally-mandated organization that educates, promotes and facilitates federal technology transfer....
Daly, BMI and the JOTT will be honored at a ceremony April 7 during the FLC National Meeting, to be held virtually this year.
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* For the full article, please go to https://www.hjf.org/news/hjf-supports-award-winning-technology-transfer