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Enabling Drug Discovery for Malaria

Award Information

Agency:
Department of Defense 		Branch:
Army 		Award ID:
63101 		Program Year/Program:
2003 / SBIR
Agency Tracking Number:
A022-1487 		Solicitation Year:
N/A 		Solicitation Topic Code:
N/A 		Solicitation Number:
N/A
Small Business Information
Agave BioSystems, Inc.
P.O. Box 100 Ithaca, NY -
View profile »
Woman-Owned: No
Minority-Owned: No
HUBZone-Owned: No
 
Phase 1
Fiscal Year: 2003
Title: Enabling Drug Discovery for Malaria
Agency / Branch: DOD / ARMY
Contract: DAMD17-03-C-001
Award Amount: $119,951.00
 

Abstract:

Malaria is responsible for 300 million cases a year, resulting in 1 million deaths. From a military perspective, maintaining bases in regions where the disease is endemic puts troops at risk for infection. Whether for civilian or military populations,the fact remains that insecticide tolerant mosquitoes, drug resistant parasites and lack of effective vaccines necessitate new approaches to combating this scourge. Emerging information about the genetics of these organisms, primarily through advances inwhole-genome and expression analysis, provides a knowledge base to investigate new opportunities for disease prevention. Genetic approaches are complemented by technological advances in high-throughput screening and combinatorial chemistry that, together,enable a means to synthesize and rapidly screen prospective drug leads. In this Phase I proposal, Agave BioSystems proposes to develop a validated protocol for the isolation of shikimate pathway genes from P. falciparum, the causative agent of malaria.The success of this approach will allow isolation of other metabolic genes of interest, extending the number of enzymes that can be targeted for drug discovery efforts to effectively combat this global disease. The worldwide market for drugs to combatmalaria is significant. This program will establish the core technology to validate genes isolated from this particular group of organisms and express and isolate them in recombinant form to enable drug discovery. This process can then be used to developdrugs for other significant pathogens.

Principal Investigator:

Joel Tabb
Principal Scientist
6072720002
jtabb@agavebio.com

Business Contact:

Noe Salazar
President
5126711369
nsalazar@agavebio.com
Small Business Information at Submission:

AGAVE BIOSYSTEMS, INC.
P.O. Box 80010 Austin, TX 78708

EIN/Tax ID: 161551819
DUNS: N/A
Number of Employees:
Woman-Owned: No
Minority-Owned: No
HUBZone-Owned: No