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Ocean Biomedical, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCEA) is a biopharma company that works with research universities and medical centers to develop and commercialize discoveries for medical treatments. The company on Tuesday said that scientific founder Dr. Jonathan Kurtis presented details of a novel malaria treatment approach to scientists at the National Malaria Laboratory of Vaccinology and Immunology (NIH) in Bethesda, MD, during a recent meeting.
Effective Vaccine Targets
The breakthrough discovery is that the parasite protein PfGARP has the potential to be a highly effective vaccine target to treat malaria. Building on that, Dr. Kurtis presented data showing that the involvement of PfGARP is important in regulating parasite density in the human host because it can cause malaria parasites to kill themselves. The developments presented at the meeting show how the team of Dr. Kurtis used a novel approach to harness the ability of PfGARP to kill parasites, aiming for potential drug development.
“We need new drugs for severe malaria. We hope this will lead to a new class of anti-malarial drugs. It is a privilege to have the opportunity to share this work with colleagues at NIH, especially Dr. Patrick Duffy and Michal Fried who have helped advance the every stage,” said Dr. Kurtis.
Previously, Dr. Jack Elias, scientific co-founder of the company and Dean Emeritus of Medicine and Biological Sciences at Brown University, has shared details of his team’s discovery of the role of the CHI3L1 glycoprotein in regulating primary and metastatic lung cancer, glioblastoma multiforme. , and the broader oncogenic pathway. In the talk, Dr. Kurtis describes a unique Whole Proteome Differential Screening technique used to distinguish the antibody repertoire of malaria-resistant children from malaria-susceptible children. This technique led to the discovery of three key targets that were formulated into highly effective malaria vaccine candidates that Dr. Kurtis and Ocean Biomedical.
Findings
The data generated by the lab of Dr. Kurtis has shown that the family of small molecule candidates developed by his team is highly specific for binding to PfGARP; non-toxic in many in vitro and in vivo systems; has excellent pharmacokinetic properties; and rapidly clear parasitemia in animal models. The discovery allowed the company to begin jointly pursuing the development of novel malaria vaccines, and novel malaria therapies.
Fundamental Research Corp. initiated coverage of Ocean Biomedical (OCEA) with a “Buy” recommendation.
“The discovery of this malaria vaccine, along with the previous discovery of bispecific antibodies and immune checkpoint inhibitors that kill Glioblastoma cells and melanoma cells, will save thousands of lives and lead to long-term stock price growth. We look forward to bringing this malaria vaccine candidate to people Asia and Africa and the possibility to prevent the main cause of death of children around the world,” said Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, chairman and founder of Ocean Biomedical.
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