QUORUM INNOVATIONS, LLC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: HR001120S0019-12

Description

Quorum Innovations ("QI") proposes the use of biofilm derived microbial proteins as a durable surface material capable of preventing microbial and viral surface adhesion while reinforcing barrier function of the underlying biological substrates. The unprecented COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a weakness in the general approach to viral epidemics with an emphasis on vaccines that are dependent on the adaptive immune response. This approach leaves open an ongoing susceptibility to antigenic shift that may escape the specificity of these immune based therapies. There is an unmet need for rapid onset, antigen agnostic anti-viral therapies, easily delivered via aerosolized vehicle which specifically target the primary means of viral entry through the nose and lungs. QI has developed an acellular microbial peptide fraction which demonstrates promising activity in a SARS-CoV-1 in vitro model assay as well as broader tissue barrier-protective properties. The objective of QI work under this program is to further develop and employ QI technology for protection against coronavirus and other respiratory viruses, bacterial biological threat agents such as methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), and common chemical-biological (CB) threats such as  acetylcholinesterase-inhibiting  gas agents. QI will perform compositional and in vitro activity-directed analyses of QI proteins to identify and prioritize hits, obtain protein recombinant vectors, and test the lead protein in a SARS CoV-2 animal disease model for proof of concept of a QI anti-COVID19 protein therapeutic for respiratory protection. These efforts are a critical part of an overall strategy aiming for Investigational New Drug (IND) submission for QI protein technology for use as a respiratory anti-viral therapeutic.