TAF Impact: Meeting the Dengue Challenge
The dengue virus, spread by mosquitoes, threatens about half of the world’s population with illness or death. The vaccine and immunology community has been seeking a way to treat or prevent dengue virus infections for the past 40 years.
A unique challenge of dengue is that there are four genetically distinct variations (serotypes) of the virus. “The immune system can tell the difference between these serotypes,” said SUNY Upstate Medical University researcher Adam Waickman. ”That means we have to generate immunity against four viruses simultaneously.”
Waickman explained that, in general, if you are infected with serotype one of dengue, you generally cannot be infected again with that serotype. However, you would not necessarily have protection against serotypes two, three and four. To further complicate matters, infection with one serotype actually puts you at greater risk of severe disease if you're later infected with one of the other serotypes.
Waickman has developed a new class of monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of dengue that have been shown to neutralize the viruses with no infection-enhancing side effects. He received a TAF Class of 2023 investment to advance the therapy that may also be effective on other flaviviruses such as Zika virus, and Powassan virus. “The TAF award will allow the us to do the pivotal work required to move the antibodies to advanced stage trials,” said Waickman.
About the SUNY TAF
A significant obstacle to the commercial development of university technology is the lack of funding for promising discoveries after government-sponsored support ends and before a licensee or venture-capital support is secured. The SUNY Technology Accelerator Fund (SUNY TAF) program was established in 2011 to help bridge that gap for SUNY researchers. SUNY TAF targets critical research and development milestones—such as feasibility studies, prototyping, and testing—which demonstrate that an idea or innovation has commercial potential. The goal is to increase the likelihood of potential investors and other partners to translate these early-stage technologies into products and services with transformational capabilities.
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