Vaxxas' temperature-stable, low-dose vaccine patch; plus Stanford screen for 3-D tumor targets, new invasion mechanism for SARS-CoV-2 and PharmaMar

Gates Foundation grants Vaxxas $5M for low-dose vaccine patch
Vaxxas Pty. Ltd. received a $5 million grant Tuesday from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop its high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP) to deliver vaccines. HD-MAP vaccines can be stored at 40°C for at least 12 months. Also on Tuesday, a Vaxxas-led team reported in PLOS Medicine data from a Phase I study in healthy adults showing HD-MAP delivery of influenza A virus HA elicited similar titers of neutralizing antibodies against HA as intramuscular injection of flu vaccine Afluria Quadrivalent -- which delivers six times more antigen -- from the CSL Ltd. unit Seqirus Pty Ltd. Vaxxas said the Gates Foundation grant will go toward initial human studies for measles and rubella virus vaccination.

Spheroid screen uncovers CPD as target for 3-D cancer growth
A Stanford University team developed a scalable 3-D spheroid model of lung cancer growth, and performed a genome-wide CRISPR screen for targets that were more important for growth in 3-D spheroids than in 2-D monolayers. Described in Nature, the screen identified the metallocarboxypeptidase CPD as a key driver of 3-D cancer growth. Stanford has filed patent applications on methods for reducing tumor growth by inhibiting CPD, and methods for identifying CPD inhibitors...