Dr. Weizhong Li receives the UM Ventures Seed Grant

June 15, 2018

Congratulations!  Dr. Weizhong Li receives the UM Ventures Seed Grant from the Office Technology Commercialization, the University of Maryland. Dr. Li will test a novel mucosal vaccine against Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) infection in a cotton rat model.

Data from WHO informs that human RSV causes 64 million infections with about 160,000 deaths annually. The recurrent human RSV infection is popular in infants and the elderly, around the world. To date, the commercial RSV vaccine is not available. As a result, the global RSV treatment market is anticipated to climb to unprecedented levels, in the next few years and may reach $2.3 billion by 2024.

Dr. Li’s research aims to develop an RSV F protein subunit vaccine using the FcRn-mediated transportation technique established by Dr. Zhu’s lab.  The funding amount is $15,000.