EAGER: SARS-CoV-2 Pseudovirus via a novel eukaryotic construction in yeast
- Funded by National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Total publications:0 publications
Grant number: unknown
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Key facts
Disease
COVID-19Start & end year
20202022Known Financial Commitments (USD)
$225,742Funder
National Science Foundation (NSF)Principal Investigator
Robert BeitleResearch Location
United States of AmericaLead Research Institution
University of ArkansasResearch Priority Alignment
N/A
Research Category
Pathogen: natural history, transmission and diagnostics
Research Subcategory
Pathogen morphology, shedding & natural history
Special Interest Tags
N/A
Study Type
Non-Clinical
Clinical Trial Details
N/A
Broad Policy Alignment
Pending
Age Group
Not Applicable
Vulnerable Population
Not applicable
Occupations of Interest
Not applicable
Abstract
One of the significant impediments in the fight against a disease like COVID-19 is the availability of a safe and effective mimic of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that could be used without the need of very specialized handling and laboratory equipment that could serve as early-stage substitute during technology development. As an early stage substitute the SARS-CoV-2 mimic, or pseudovirus, could serve as a safe, effective tool to create antibodies, develop purification methods, design vaccine candidates, and build diagnostic kits. In the absence of suitable mimics, the nationwide ability to quickly pass/fail ideas is vastly limited. In particular, due to the low number of facilities that are able to safely handle an infectious agent, a strain on infrastructure occurs which ultimately limits the number of teams ?in the fight? who may have significant expertise but minimal accommodations. This project will produce such a safe pseudovirus that could be widely used for the development of materials for this and potentially future pandemics. In addition, a postdoc will be trained in an interdisciplinary environment.
The objective of this proposal is to develop a synthetic yeast construct that will serve as a safe (BSL-1), robust and reliable surrogate for SARS-CoV-2 or other infectious agents against which diagnostic and environmental testing assays could be developed and validated. The key elements of the proposed work are 1) the development of a yeast surface display platform in which the surface density of key proteins normally found on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 can be expressed, 2) the development of a robust production platform for the biomanufacturing of the yeast pseudovirus, and 3) the validation of the yeast pseudovirus against SARS-CoV-2 to demonstrate that the yeast pseudovirus can be used as a mimic for SARS-CoV-2 for the development of biologics.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
The objective of this proposal is to develop a synthetic yeast construct that will serve as a safe (BSL-1), robust and reliable surrogate for SARS-CoV-2 or other infectious agents against which diagnostic and environmental testing assays could be developed and validated. The key elements of the proposed work are 1) the development of a yeast surface display platform in which the surface density of key proteins normally found on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 can be expressed, 2) the development of a robust production platform for the biomanufacturing of the yeast pseudovirus, and 3) the validation of the yeast pseudovirus against SARS-CoV-2 to demonstrate that the yeast pseudovirus can be used as a mimic for SARS-CoV-2 for the development of biologics.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.