TS-003437 — According to the CDC, roughly 1.1 million COVID-19 cases have been reported in the past year, and 81.4% of the U.S. population have received the updated booster dose. This therapeutic agent utilizes the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) vector to protect against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. This innovative approach resulted in heightened immunogenicity of the vaccines compared to currently available options. Specifically, the utilization of the prefusion Spike protein, stabilized with six prolines (preS-6P), component in the vaccine formulation demonstrates superior efficacy in eliciting a robust immune response. Two distinguishing features of this vaccine platform are the proposed intranasal administration and the live attenuated virus design, both of which induce robust mucosal immunity. In addition to the vaccine platform, the inventors used the platform to develop specific IgY antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 that might be used as a prophylactic, therapeutic or diagnostic antibody. This technology holds significant promise in the development of effective vaccines to combat SARS-CoV-2 and its variants long-term. RINCH has filed a provisional application (63/452,870) and the inventors continue to evaluate the efficacy of the vaccine candidates in animal models. This technology is jointly owned with The Ohio State University.

TS-000971 — The novel disease Coronavirus, also denoted as COVID-19, was recognized by the World Health Organization as an unknown etiology in December of 2019. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is a disease that presents flu-like symptoms that is caused by coronavirus (SARS-CoV). The current pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is causing tremendous economical, emotional, and public health burdens. A team of researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital have reengineered a live attenuated recombinant mumps virus to create a novel SARS-CoV-2 vaccine for infants and children under the age of twelve. As vaccination is the most effective strategy to prevent infectious diseases, this development is instrumental to the outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic.

TS-000372 — Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most frequent cause of lower respiratory disease and hospitalization in infants, but there is currently no vaccine available to prevent or treat RSV disease. Researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and The Ohio State University have developed a novel method for designing RSV vaccines using a Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV) vector. VSV is attenuated in humans, so it can infect people and express inserted genes without causing disease. Additionally, VSV grows to high titers in culture, allowing for efficient vaccine production.

TS-000329 — There is currently no vaccine available for protecting against Zika virus (ZIKV) infection and disease. Researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and The Ohio State University have developed novel candidate ZIKV vaccines that use vesicular stomatitis virus to express ZIKV proteins. The protection conferred by our vaccines does not rely on antibodies against the ZIKV envelope protein, eliminating the potential problem of antibody dependent enhancement of other species of flavivirus. Our candidate vaccines are highly attenuated while still inducing a protective immune response against ZIKV infection.

TS-000214 — Preventing RSV attachment protein cleavage in vaccine producing cells to increase yield.

TS-000187 — Pneumoviruses include many important human and animal pathogens. Among these viruses, human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and metapneumovirus (MPV) is a leading cause of acute respiratory tract infection in infants and children. Despite major efforts, there is no vaccine to combat these diseases due to the difficulty of constructing a virus that is stable, attenuated and can still provoke an adaptive immune response. Infectious disease experts at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and The Ohio State University have developed a panel of recombinant RSV (rhRSV) and MPV (rhMPV) that are defective in zinc binding activity. The inability of these viruses to bind zinc has rendered them genetically stable and highly attenuated in an animal model. Therefore, our rhRSVs and rhMPVs are excellent vaccine candidates for hMPV.

TS-000184 — Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of upper and lower respiratory tract infections in infants and young children. Preclinical therapeutic studies require simple readouts for viral replication (e.g. readouts for high throughput screening of compound libraries). Researchers at Nati…

TS-000132 — Mutation of the RSV NS1/2 proteins to attenuate the virus and boost immunogenicity