Lincoln, Neb. -- Around the world last year, more than half of the 261 people infected with the avian flu virus died. No one knows if or when a world-wide pandemic may begin.
In Lincoln, Nature Technology Corporation (NTC) is working to develop safe, DNA-based vaccines against pandemic flu and other infectious diseases.
The company, based at the University of Nebraska Technology Park, provided the DNA-manufacturing process that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is using to develop its own pandemic (H5N1) avian influenza vaccine.
The first human trials of the DNA-based vaccine approved by NIH began in late December in Maryland. If the trials go well, the NIH hopes the new vaccine could be a valuable new weapon in the health care arsenal.
“An effective H5N1 influenza vaccine would provide a potentially life-saving advance against a global health threat,” National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., said in an NIH news release.
The vaccine produced by Nature Technology Corporation’s DNA manufacturing process has the potential not only to combat influenza, but also to combat it safely.
“The benefit of using a DNA vaccine is that you don’t have to expose a person directly to pathogens,” said Dr. Clague P. Hodgson, CEO of Nature Technology Corporation.
In the past, manufacturers produced flu vaccines by growing the viruses in hen eggs and inoculating people with a weakened or killed form of the virus, according to the NIH. Most people then developed defenses against stronger, living versions of the virus. In some cases, however, the weakened virus still possessed enough strength to infect people.
The new DNA-based vaccine eliminates the threat of infection because it does not contain the actual virus, merely portions of the virus’s genetic material. The DNA then instructs human cells to make proteins that act as a vaccine.
The NIH developed the vaccine against the avian flu because of the severity of the disease and the potential for human-to-human spread. Researchers speak optimistically about the potential Nature Technology Corporation’s method of DNA vaccine manufacturing has to control not only avian flu, but other viruses. Illnesses a DNA vaccine could prevent include HIV, Ebola, SARS, West Nile and the H1N1 flu strain that caused the 1918 pandemic.
“I think it has huge potential,” Hodgson said. “Like all new technology it’s going to take some time to be effective, but it’s very safe. Right now we’re working to make it more effective.”
The University of Nebraska Technology Park is a cooperative partnership of the University of Nebraska Foundation, University of Nebraska and private sector investors. Founded in 1996, the Technology Park is home to 19 companies and organizations with a total of over 820 employees. The park provides access to university resources, technology transfer assistance, research funding resources, highly competitive lease rates, professional office services, high-speed data services, and on-site expansion and building options.