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Silk Proteins for More Stable Vaccines
Almost all vaccines on the market require refrigeration to remain viable – including during transport. Continuous cooling is expensive and especially challenging in developing countries.
To solve this problem, Vaxess Technologies Inc., a small business funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), has developed a technology that uses silk proteins to create more stable biological platform that keeps vaccines from degrading when exposed to higher temperatures.
Vaxess co-founder Livio Valenti explains that the silk proteins are particularly resilient to temperature changes and help control moisture content.
Vaxess is supported through the NSF Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) program, a $188 million activity that catalyzes commercialization of high-risk technological innovations via research and development grants to small businesses and startups. Vaxess was one of 50 NSF-funded startups and small businesses with innovative biotech, based on fundamental research, on display at the 2016 BIO International Convention.
More at NSF.gov/SBIR.
Original air date: December 8, 2016.
Credit: NSF
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