University of Houston collaborates with AuraVax to innovate Covid vaccine with ‘differentiated-approach’

• The University of Houston, in partnership with AuraVax Therapeutics, is all set to develop a Covid vaccine
• AuraVax claims that the nasal vaccine can be administered at home 
• The vaccine is being developed with a differentiated approach that annihilates the Covid-19 virus at its point of entry – the nasal cavity

THD NewsDesk, Texas: The University of Houston (UH) announced its partnership with AuraVax Therapeutics to innovate a ‘differentiated-approach’ Covid vaccine. AuraVax is an Indian-American biotech company that promises to engineer a ‘next generation’ vaccine conveniently administered at home.  

The vaccine is being developed to combat aggressive respiratory diseases, including COVID-19—co-founder of AuraVax, N. Varadarajan, and M.D. Anderson, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UH have jointly developed an ingenious intranasal vaccine technology. 

According to the PTI report, Varadarajan claimed this innovative technology has the potential to stimulate systemic immunity. The pre-clinical experiments undertaken by AuraVax and UoH indicate that the vaccine can destroy the Covid-19 virus in the nasal cavity before it enters our system.

“We plan to stop COVID-19, a respiratory virus, at its point of entry — the nasal cavity — and we believe our intranasal platform is a differentiated approach that will lead to a vaccine with increased efficacy to create sustained immunity to COVID-19,” said Varadarajan.

The research study’s primary focus is the spike proteins that serve as the entry point for infections to penetrate host cells. Interestingly, protein cells can prompt vital immune responses, flexibility, and scalability, so they are preferred.

Amr Elnashai, the University of Houston Vice-President for Research and Technology transfer, said,

“AuraVax, being created by an UoH professor, is the ideal partner for us, and what better cause than to advance the creation of a vaccine to COVID-19, arguably the primary challenge facing our generation. The partnership has my wholehearted support.”

Professing his belief in the efficiency of his innovative technology, Dr. Varadrajan said

“The race for more effective ways of vaccinating against COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases has led to a broad and extensive focus on various protective mechanisms of action. We believe AuraVax has a competitive advantage given the immune responses and a supply chain that is well-suited for widespread distribution and self-administration distribution.”

With over 620,000 lives lost to the pernicious virus, an effective and lasting vaccine is the need of the hour.  

Source: PTI