Versatope Therapeutics is a preclinical-stage biotechnology company addressing problems in vaccine potency and therapeutic delivery, the firm organizes around development of an immunotherapy platform using recombinant vesicles from probiotic bacteria. The company combines bioinformatics, synthetic biology, chemistry, and leverages the therapeutic applications of the rOMV technology to create new vaccines and therapeutics. Currently resident in the JLab facility in Lowell, MA., the company is developing a bacterial factory nano particle technology and multiple epitopes can be displayed to overcome strain-specific immunity, enabling biotechnology companies to develop a single vaccine to protect against multiple strains of influenza. With technology licensed from Cornell, Versatope Therapeutics delivers immunity with nanometer-size vesicles using a synthetic biology technology platform. These nanovesicles are derived from the outer membrane of a genetically engineered and detoxified E. coli probiotic bacterial strain. This technology enables recombinant proteins to be expressed and delivered within a time-release vesicle that has the potential to be spray-dried or lyophilized for increased stability. When this proprietary technology was used to protect against influenza, the firm report having achieved complete protection against different strains of influenza with a single immunization due to the induction of potent cellular and antibody immune responses. If these results can be replicated, this technology could eliminate the need for yearly immunizations by serving as a universal flu vaccine. The claim is also that this platform technology is applicable to multiple infectious diseases (human and veterinary applications), allergy treatments, and cancer immuno-therapies. In the Fall 2019, the young firm was a five-year $17.9M grant (BAA - Broad Agency Annoucement) by NIAID - Allergy and Infectious Diseases - to advance the firm's universal influenza vaccine candidate
