Pleasanton, Calif.-based Juvaris BioTherapeutics, a four-year-old biotech developing vaccines and drugs against infectious disease, won a $9 million, five-year grant from the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Disease. The money will fund collaborative research with Stanford and UC Davis to study adjuvants, which are substances that boost the body’s natural immune response. Adjuvants are often used to enhance the effectiveness of vaccines or to stretch existing supplies, since an adjuvant can reduce the amount of vaccine required to innoculate an individual.
Juvaris, founded in 2003, has to date raised roughly $22 million from private investors and government funds, the San Jose Mercury News reports. The company was built around its adjuvant technology — a “complex” of DNA and fatty molecules known as lipids that the company claims is 50 times more potent than existing adjuvants — and aims to develop vaccines, antibiotics and other anti-infective agents.
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VentureBeat » Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2007 said:
[...] Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers provided the funding. Juvaris is developing vaccines against cancer and infectious disease using “adjuvants” — composed of DNA complexes and fatty molecules known as lipids — that stimulate immune responses. For additional coverage of the company, see here. [...]
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VentureBeat » Life sciences briefing: Friday, Nov. 2, 2007 said:
[...] Juvaris is developing vaccines against infectious disease and cancer using adjuvants — substances that enhance immune response, and thus the activity of vaccines — made from complexes formed by out of complexes of DNA and fatty molecules called lipids. We previously covered the company here. [...]