The award is the largest competitive grant ever made to the Hebrew University and to an Israeli researcher from the NIH. Funds were awarded under the NIAID Biodefense Challenge Grants program, which encourages private industry to work with academic investigators in order to develop countermeasures against potential agents of bioterrorism.
Product development will be done in collaboration with Atox Bio, a company established by Yissum, the Technology Transfer Company of the Hebrew University, in keeping with its strategy of commercializing promising technologies by establishing new companies.
Superantigens are deadly toxins produced by staphylococcal and streptococcal bacteria that even in very low amounts can incapacitate humans, posing a bioterror threat. These toxins are also responsible for a majority of fatal toxic and septic shock cases, yet no drug or vaccine against them is available. The toxins released by these bacteria are insensitive to antibiotics.
The $5.6-million award was made to Dr. Raymond Kaempfer to support research and product development leading up to clinical trial of the toxin antagonist. The NIH review panel has termed the research unique in the world.
Kaempfer, who is the Philip Marcus Professor of Molecular Biology and Cancer Research in the Department of Molecular Virology at the Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine, and his colleague, Dr. Gila Arad, previously uncovered a novel molecular mechanism by which the superantigen toxins elicit a vastly exaggerated immune response that leads to death.
The researchers used this insight to design
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Contact: Jerry Barach
jerryb@savion.huji.ac.il
972-2-588-2904
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
25-Sep-2005