Mass
High Tech:
Aphios wins substantial NIH grant to study potential
HIV therapies
03/23/2004
10:36 AM:
Aphios Corp. of Woburn has been awarded
a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Advanced Technology
Phase I grant worth nearly $900,000 from the National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes
of Health.
The two-year grant calls for Aphios to develop novel anti-HIV
therapeutics from its unique library of marine microorganisms.
Aphios has established a library of diverse marine microorganisms
and marine molecule fractions from normal to extremophilic
environments for the rapid discovery and development of
novel anti-infectives (HIV, influenza, smallpox, bacterial,
MDR).
According to Aphios, it has screened more than 10,000 partially-purified
marine molecule fractions (more than 1 million molecular
entities) from its marine microorganism library for activity
against HIV-1 in cytoprotection and cytotoxicity assays
and has identified more than 300 hits that are effective
against HIV-1.
Founded in 1993, Aphios is a biopharmaceutical company
that is developing enhanced natural therapeutics for health
maintenance and the treatment of human diseases with a focus
on infectious diseases, oncology and quality-of-life medicines.
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