Ian Frazer partners with US university on DNA vaccine

Australian biotech Coridon, founded by Professor Ian Fraser, has entered into a collaboration with Ohio State University to progress work on Coridon’s DNA vaccine for Epstein Barr Virus (EBV).

The vaccine is one of the first to use DNA vaccine approach, which is a radical departure from conventional approaches, such as those using dead or attenuated microorganisms.

Read more about Ian Frazer and his research on DNA vaccines.

Coridon is developing DNA vaccines for the prevention and treatment of a range of infectious diseases and cancers in humans. One of the benefits of DNA vaccines is they offer both preventative and therapeutic value.

Coridon recently started development of a preventative and therapeutic vaccine for EBV, which is the cause of infectious mononucleosis (glandular fever) in young adults and is linked with Burkitt’s lymphoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, Hodgkin’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas and lymphoproliferative diseases in with a suppressed immune system.

Coridon’s technology has been developed to stimulate not only a strong antibody response but also a robust cellular immune response and is particularly suited to the development of therapeutic vaccines.

Coridon will now collaborate with Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, Director of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center and CEO of The James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute and Robert Baiocchi, MD, PhD, principal investigator and member of the Viral Oncology Program at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center to test the EBV vaccine for prevention of lymphoproliferative disease in a pre-clinical model they have established.

“This collaboration is based on the use of our unique patented optimisation technology,” said Neil Finlayson, Coridon CEO. “This technology is being applied to the development of DNA vaccines for a range of infectious diseases and cancer. We are very fortunate to be able to work with global leaders on this project and will look at expanding our collaboration as appropriate.”

Coridon is also working with the University of Washington on the Company’s Herpes Simplex Virus 2 (HSV-2) vaccine. Coridon plans to start Phase I human trials of the vaccine in 2012.