Vaccines and therapies to prevent and treat Norovirus infections are not available, despite the worldwide prevalence of Norovirus infections. Outbreaks of human gastroenteritis attributable to Norovirus commonly occur in group settings, such as hospitals, nursing homes, schools, dormitories, cruise ships and military barracks. This application claims isolated VHH monoclonal antibodies that specifically bind to a Norovirus polypeptide.

Many members of the Flaviviridae family are emerging and reemerging human pathogens that have caused outbreaks of devastating and often fatal diseases and represent a serious public health problem on a global scale. There is no single attenuation strategy that exists which is sufficient to prepare a safe, efficacious and immunogenic live attenuated virus vaccine that will work universally for Flaviviridae.

Within recent years, point-of-care (POC) testing has allowed for many individuals to be screened for and provided with HIV test results. It is critical to be able to accurately detect acute HIV infections as this is a stage where the risk of transmission is great. Additionally, early HIV detection could lead to less high-risk behavior, thereby reducing transmission. Currently, there are no rapid, cost-effective diagnostic tests sensitive enough to detect acute HIV-1 infections for the POC setting.

An arthropod-borne virus, Zika virus (ZIKV), has recently emerged as a major human pathogen. Associated with complications during perinatal development and Guillain-Barré syndrome in adults, ZIKV raises new challenges for understanding the molecular determinants of flavivirus pathogenesis. This underscores the necessity for the development of a reverse genetic system based on an epidemic ZIKV strain. This technology relates to the generation and characterization in cell cultures of an infectious cDNA clone of ZIKV isolated from the 2015 epidemic in Brazil.

The present invention is related to a recombinant viral vector for vaccines.

Currently available poxvirus vectors for humans and other animals exhibit suboptimal expression of recombinant gene(s) and high expression of vector proteins which causes weak immunogenicity and high anti-vector immune response.

This technology is an ultra-sensitive colorimetric assay, based on an enzyme-catalyzed gold nanoparticle growth process, for detection of disease-associated proteins (biomarkers) and disease diagnosis. Current detection methods, such as ELISA immunoassays, measure concentrations above 0.1 ng/mL in a sample. PCR, although more sensitive than ELISA, requires expensive and specialized equipment and reagents, skilled labor, and complex analysis techniques. This assay detects fg/mL to pg/mL concentrations, allowing detection and diagnosis in the earliest stage of disease or infection.

Summary – The invention includes compounds and compositions for inhibiting phosphoglycerate mutase (PGM) activity. In some examples, the compounds selectively inhibit cofactor-independent PGM (iPGM). In particular embodiments, the compounds include one or more cyclic peptides.

This application claims live attenuated Zika viruses and vaccines, attenuated chimeric Zika viruses and vaccines, and multivalent immunogenic compositions comprising Zika vaccines and vaccines for other flaviviruses. The chimeric Zika viruses claimed include a first nucleotide sequence encoding at least one structural protein from a Zika virus (ZIKV), a second nucleotide sequence encoding at least one nonstructural protein from a first flavivirus, and a third nucleotide sequence of a 3' untranslated region from a second flavivirus.

Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause microcephaly and other severe birth defects. The CDC Zika MAC-ELISA (IgM antibody capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) currently used for diagnosis detects antibodies produced to fight a Zika virus infection. However, reactivity of flavivirus antibodies (from exposure to other mosquito-borne infections such as dengue or West Nile virus) can complicate the interpretation of these results.

Streptococcus pneumoniae (S. pneumoniae) bacteria, or pneumococcus, can cause many types of illnesses. These range from ear and sinus infections to life-threatening conditions such as pneumonia, bloodstream infections, and meningitis. Pneumococci are surrounded by a polysaccharide capsule, which is thought to help it evade the immune system. Presently, over 90 known serotypes of S. pneumoniae have been identified, of which only a minority produce the majority of pneumococcal infections; a serotype is defined by a unique pneumococcal capsule structure.