RANCHO DOMINGUEZ, Calif. September 22, 2009 -- Molecular Express (http://www.molecularexpress.com) announced the award of SBIR AT Phase I funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to continue the development of a “universal” influenza vaccine for preventing influenza pandemics and epidemics. Part of the influenza vaccine project will be conducted in collaboration with Professors Thomas Voss at Tulane University and Christopher Miller of the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California Davis.

Infections by the influenza virus have caused the deaths of millions of humans worldwide. While generally effective against individual viruses, vaccines that protect against new emerging strains of influenza are difficult to manufacture rapidly and have unpredictable immunological activity due to rapid mutations and rearrangements in the influenza viral genome. The appearance of highly virulent avian strains and the emergence of an H1N1 strain of influenza have led to the prediction that a pandemic of unprecedented consequences might occur in the near future. Immunization against emerging strains of influenza would be greatly improved by the development of new vaccine technologies that provide broad protection against infection and yet, are flexible enough to be able to rapidly and effectively make changes in response to new viruses.

RANCHO DOMINGUEZ, Calif. May 19, 2009 -- Molecular Express (http://www.molecularexpress.com) announced the receipt of SBIR Phase II funding from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute  (NHLBI) to develop a novel lung surfactant product for treating patients suffering from Acute Lung Injury (ALI) or the Acute Respiratory Distress syndrome (ARDS).  The lung surfactant project will be a multi-institutional collaborative effort between Professors Alan Waring and Frans Walther of the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed), Professor Robert Notter of the University of Rochester, Professor Adrian Schwan of the University of Guelph and the Molecular Express team.  The Company has also obtained an exclusive license to certain synthetic lung surfactant technology discovered by Professors Waring, Walther, Notter and Schwan.

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.