Oragenics, Inc. Enters into Collaboration with Florida International University to Expand Its Pipeline of Lantibiotics

“We are regularly seeking to optimize treatment with our lantibiotic compounds and believe that this collaboration will help to best understand the way our lantibiotics interact with bacteria, thus enabling us to rationally design novel analogs with improved antimicrobial and/or pharmacological properties,” stated Alan Joslyn, Ph.D., President and CEO of Oragenics, Inc. “We are particularly enthusiastic to be collaborating with Florida International University’s team and look forward to sharing outcomes from our efforts and to introducing additional therapies that may include Gram-negative infections as a result of these models.”

The collaboration will develop and refine new computational models for studying lantibiotics as they interact with both Lipid II, the membrane or their host, and each other. The company then anticipates using this new model toward the development of new compounds that address life-threatening infections.

Dr. Yuk-Ching Tse-Dinh, director of FIU’s Biomolecular Sciences Institute and Translational Molecular Discoveries, commented, “This collaboration will advance both basic and translational knowledge relevant for finding much needed new treatments for superbugs. A major goal of the Translational Molecular Discoveries, an emerging preeminent program at FIU, is to establish a partnership between FIU faculty and industry so that the scientific discoveries made at FIU can impact disease treatment.”

About Oragenics, Inc.

Oragenics is focused on becoming a leader in novel antibiotics against infectious disease and on developing effective treatments for oral mucositis. The company has established two exclusive worldwide channel collaborations with Intrexon Corporation and its subsidiaries. The collaborations allow Oragenics to accelerate the development of much needed new antibiotics that can work against resistant strains of bacteria and the development of biotherapeutics for oral mucositis and other diseases and conditions of the oral cavity, throat, and esophagus.

For more information about Oragenics, please visit www.oragenics.com.

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