ROCKVILLE, Md., Feb. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Sanaria Inc. has received additional support from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health in the form of a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant. The three-year award totaling approximately $3 million will support collaborative research by investigators at Sanaria and Columbia University. This new funding extends previous NIAID supported efforts at Sanaria and Columbia to develop genetically modified strains of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum that are unable to cause disease, yet stimulate protective immunity when administered as a live, whole parasite malaria vaccine. “There is considerable excitement about whole parasite malaria vaccines, and research towards developing genetically modified strains for such vaccines is at the cutting edge of this field,” states Dr. Christian Loucq, Director of the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative.
