SpyBiotech Receives Grant to Advance Novel SpyVector Platform That Improves Efficacy and Boosting Capability of Adenovirus-based Vaccines Against Current and Future Pandemic Viruses

Funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will support development of next generation pan-SARS-CoV-2 and pan-sarbecovirus vaccines

OXFORD, England & CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SpyBiotech, a biotechnology company with a novel vaccine platform technology that can target infectious diseases, cancer, and chronic diseases, has received a grant of $4,094,561 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to further develop its novel SpyVector platform. This project will harness SpyBio’s ‘plug and display’ technology to design a broadly cross-protective coronavirus vaccine.

SpyVector is a platform based on recombinant adenovirus. The platform enables easy and efficient covalent decoration of the surface of the adenovirus with pathogen antigens in addition to genetically encoding the antigen, as demonstrated in a recent publication Modular capsid decoration boosts adenovirus vaccine-induced humoral immunity against SARS-CoV-2. The platform increases the quantity of antibodies induced by decorating the adenovirus with the antigen while maintaining the T cell response to the encoded antigen.

“This grant will showcase the potential of the SpyVector technology which can be applied to generate vaccines against a wide range of pathogens and therapeutic applications,” said Sumi Biswas, Ph.D., President and CSO of SpyBio. “Our SpyVector technology, developed by our Principal Scientist Dr. Matthew Dicks and his team, has the potential to generate more broadly protective coronavirus vaccines.”

While SpyBio continues to develop the SpyVector platform, the company is advancing its lead candidate – a vaccine targeting human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) using its Hepatitis B virus-like-particle platform technology – into the clinic later this year.

About SpyBiotech

SpyBio is a biotechnology company with a novel vaccine platform technology to target infectious diseases, cancer and chronic diseases. The company was spun out of the University of Oxford in 2017 by Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE) and Google Ventures (GV) and has raised $39mm to date. Based on science developed at Oxford, SpyBio’s novel vaccine platform is based on a proprietary protein “superglue” technology which binds antigens to vaccine delivery platforms in a way which minimizes delivery risk and enhances immunogenicity and efficacy. The technology is potentially one of the safest and most effective ways to create vaccines: cost-effective and highly scalable. This makes it ideal for use against infectious diseases in challenging environments, such as in the developing world, but also with potential application in non-infectious disease settings such as cancer. SpyBio has the exclusive rights from the University of Oxford to apply, commercialize and sub-license the SpyTag/SpyCatcher technology in vaccine development. www.spybiotech.com

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