RANCHO DOMINGUEZ, Calif. May 23, 2008 -- Molecular Express (http://www.molecularexpress.com) announced the award of SBIR Advanced Technology Phase I funding from the NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) to develop an adjuvant system.  This project will focus on anthrax as a model disease and will be a collaborative effort between Professor Zhengrong Cui of Oregon State University, Professor C. Rick Lyons of the University of New Mexico and the Molecular Express team. 
 

Efforts to develop recombinant vaccines against a variety of disease causing pathogens have suffered from the lack of a good adjuvant system that elicits a protective immune response.  Because there is a need for improved adjuvant formulations that can be conveniently modified and used as a tool in vaccine and immunological research studies, the Company has been developing an adjuvant system based on its proprietary VesiVax® vaccine platform technology.  
The VesiVax® system is a novel vaccine development platform technology designed to streamline the process of engineering and producing new vaccines to counter the spread of infectious disease causing microbes.   
 
The NIAID funding will be used to develop an easy-to-use adjuvant kit that can be coupled to a target antigen and then used for research purposes.
 
Professor Cui - “This funding will allow us to collaboratively evaluate the efficacy of this novel VesiVax® vaccine platform, which is expected to become a great tool for vaccinologists to study their vaccines of interest”.
 
Gary Fujii, Ph.D., President and CEO – “The funds will accelerate the development of the adjuvant kit based on our proprietary VesiVax® vaccine platform, thus allowing vaccine researchers and immunologists access to a new tool to use in their research.”
 
About Molecular Express
 
Molecular Express, a subsidiary of Molecular GPS Technologies headquartered in Rancho Dominguez, California is a research and development technology company specializing in the application of life science technologies to address market needs across a broad spectrum of industries. The Company’s lipid and “Molecular Guided Particle Systems” delivery platform is the basis for many active programs.  
 
Molecular Express currently has active research and development projects in the fields of infectious diseases, anti-cancer therapies and regenerative medicine.