Research Roundup: Mpox vaccine contract, Novel antibody discovery method, Broad-spectrum antiviral research

Last week, Monod Bio, a spinout company from the University of Washington, announced that it has received a $1.5 million Gates Foundation grant to develop a urine-based rapid diagnostic test for tuberculosis (TB). The company aims to help fill the gap of non-sputum-based, rapid, point-of-care TB diagnostics that are suitable for low-resource settings. Most World Health Organization-recommended TB diagnostics rely on sputum, which not all patients can provide and can be logistically difficult for health care providers to collect, but current alternatives using urine and stool samples have low specificity, and current TB tests are also not available at the point of care in communities. The test will utilize the company’s NovoBodies, novel proteins designed to be highly specific and sensitive—diagnostics have primarily used natural proteins that are adapted for use in tests.  The Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) last week announced that it is awarding $1 million to Zeteo Tech to further work on a rapid, non-invasive diagnostic test that can diagnose lower respiratory tract infections, like pneumonia, using breath samples. Lower respiratory tract infections kill 700,000 children under five annually. A less invasive, rapid test could help speed up diagnosis and guide more effective treatment, particularly of drug-resistant infections, helping reduce the prescribing of unnecessary antibiotics that can fuel the rise of antibiotic resistance. Zeteo’s platform analyzes the tiny particles and droplets in breath samples to distinguish between viral and bacterial infections and assess antibiotic susceptibility.  The results of a clinical trial released last week found that a common over-the-counter nasal spray that is used for seasonal allergies could work as an antiviral against a range of respiratory infections, including influenza, RSV, and the virus that causes COVID-19. The researchers suggest that the nasal spray, Azelastine, could help block COVID-19 infections by inhibiting a key enzyme that the virus uses to replicate or by preventing the virus from latching on to the point at which the virus enters human cells. If proven safe and effective in further studies, Azelastine could serve as an easily scalable, over-the-counter prevention method complementary to vaccines and other tools, especially when a virus is spreading among a community or in high-risk situations, like when traveling or attending crowded events. The research also provides another potential target for future vaccines. 

Last week, French biopharmaceutical company Osivax announced that it received a $19.5 million contract from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to further develop its broad-spectrum influenza A candidate vaccine for pandemic and seasonal flu preparedness. The vaccine is designed to target a part of the virus that is highly conserved and less likely to mutate, hopefully offering a broader, more universal immune response, and it has demonstrated promising results in early clinical trials. BARDA’s funding will support ongoing clinical development and large-scale trial and manufacturing preparation, with potential options for future funding to support Phase 2b and scale-up activities. A team of researchers at the University of Nottingham successfully produced antibodies that kill the parasite that causes Chagas disease, an important step toward the development of a much-needed vaccine. Chagas is a serious neglected tropical disease, which causes 56,000 cases and 12,000 deaths every year. The researchers developed antibodies targeting two key proteins in the parasite that were found to be extremely effective at neutralizing the parasite in a crucial developmental phase when it’s capable of infection, which is key for vaccine development.   A University of Maryland research team developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can quickly scan electronic medical records to identify high-risk patients who may be infected with H5N1 avian flu, as this year’s outbreak highlights the need for more robust screening interventions to ensure infections are not going undetected. The researchers used their generative AI large-language model to analyze the records of more than 13,000 adults who had visited the emergency department in Maryland in 2024 for acute respiratory illness and common H5N1 symptoms. With less than half an hour of human input, the model found 76 records that mentioned a lifestyle risk factor for H5N1, 14 of which were confirmed to have a recent exposure to animals that transmit H5N1. The tool highlights the shortcomings of the response to the latest outbreak and offers a potential new tool to help improve surveillance and testing in future outbreaks of H5N1 and other infectious diseases.