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Tonix Pharmaceuticals Announces Research Collaboration to Develop Precision Medicine Techniques for COVID-19 Vaccines and Therapeutics
Dissecting the Immune Response to SARS-CoV-2 in Healthy Recovered or Asymptomatic Volunteers May Lead to Biomarkers for Tailoring COVID-19 Vaccines and
About this update from Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp.
[{"type":"text","content":"Dissecting the Immune Response to SARS-CoV-2 in Healthy Recovered or Asymptomatic Volunteers May Lead to Biomarkers for Tailoring COVID-19 Vaccines and Therapeutics\n Potential for Human Monoclonal Antibody COVID-19 Therapeutics to be Developed as a Result of the Collaboration NEW YORK, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. (Nasdaq: TNXP) (Tonix or the Company), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced it has entered into a research collaboration and option agreement with Columbia University focused on studying the immune responses to COVID-19 in healthy volunteers who have recovered from COVID-19 or were asymptomatic. The research collaboration will focus on T cell and antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 (CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19 at the cellular level including human monoclonal antibodies and anti-idiotypes. The research is designed to fill in important gaps in understanding the detailed immune responses to COVID-19, and to provide a foundation upon which to target vaccines and therapeutics to appropriate individuals by precision medicine. The two principal investigators for the collaboration are Ilya Trakht, Ph.D., Associate Research Scientist and Sergei Rudchenko, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Medical Sciences at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Trakht’s project will study T cell and antibody responses in a variety of ways, including at the cellular level by stimulating T cells in vitro with CoV-2 antigens and by generating fully human monoclonal antibodies against CoV-2. The project, directed by Dr. Trakht, has the potential to lead to the isolation and characterization of therapeutically relevant fully human monoclonal antibodies to CoV-2. Dr. Rudchenko’s project will generate DNA aptamer-based anti-idiotypes to certain of the monoclonal antibodies identified by Dr. Trakht. Such aptamers have the potential to identify biomarkers for protective CoV-2 immunity and to lead to accelerated precision medicine-driven vaccines designed to protect against COVID-19. Seth Lederman, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Tonix Pharmaceuticals, said, “We expect that more than one COVID-19 vaccine will ultimately be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and a challenge for future research will be to determine which vacci...