Current influenza vaccines mainly induce antibodies against the surface glycoprotein hemagglutinin (HA) that block viral attachment to its host receptors and viral membrane fusion to the host cell. The immunodominant head region of HA undergoes antigenic drift and antibodies directed to the head confer little cross-protections between strains or subtypes.
Summary:
The National Cancer Institute seeks research co-development partners and/or licensees for a standardized method of detecting T-cell receptor (TCR) cross-reactivity as a means of proving safety and efficacy in preclinical evaluations ahead of clinical trials.
Description of Technology:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have been rewarded for their partnership from the 2021 Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) awards. The CDC and NIAID had already developed a new approach to sharing samples during a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) during the Zika pandemic, which enabled them to respond quickly and efficiently to access and share samples of SARS-CoV-2 early in the outbreak.
Within hours of the public release of the viral genome sequence, scientists at the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and their collaborators engineered a key protein from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to enable its study as a vaccine candidate and for research applications.
In recognition of pioneering research and development that has brought NIH technology from the theoretical realms of the laboratory to clinical applications.
Awardee
National Heart Lung and Blood Institute
In recognition of pioneering research and development and an unsurpassed commitment to transferring NIH/NIA technology to benefit mankind.
Awardee
National Institute on Aging
Reactive mast cells are the culprit in allergic diseases and have also been implicated in other diseases ranging from autoimmune disorders to cancer to atherosclerosis. These immune sentinel cells normally defend against parasites and bacteria, but sometimes they overreact to harmless intruders, such as pollens or plant oils, releasing granules loaded with inflammation-inciting molecules, such as histamine, as well as various proteases and cytokines that cause allergic and inflammatory reactions.
The development of restriction enzyme technology in the 1970s was a breakthrough in molecular biology research. For the first time, scientists were able to cut DNA at specific sites, and insert sequences with matching ends. However, the technology was limited to insertion at particular sites in the host vector, and the size of the inserted DNA quickly became a limiting factor.
Cell lines are important biomedical tools that have revolutionized the way in which researchers study diseases. Human tumor cell lines can be used as in vitro model systems of cancer that are able to simulate the manner in which the disease behaves in the body. This technology describes approximately 439 human tumor cell lines that have important application as research tools to study a wide variety of cancers. The majority of the cell lines were cultured from lung cancer tissue, but they can be used to study many tumor types.
The development of restriction enzyme technology in the 1970s was a breakthrough in genetic engineering. For the first time, scientists were able to cut DNA at specific sites and insert sequences with matching ends. However, the technology was limited to insertion at particular sites in the host vector, and the size of the inserted DNA quickly became a limiting factor. The National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) solution is a technology that consists of three specialized bacterial strains and seven plasmids, developed around a genetic system in E.