GenVec, Inc. has received a $430,000 phase I Small Business Innovation Research award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Biodefense Program to support the company's efforts to develop novel adenovector-based vaccine technology.

The funding will support research to advance GenVec's adenovector technology to develop a range of vaccines based on novel serotypes of adenovirus. The new vectors produced under this grant will incorporate influenza genes to assess their improved immunogenicity, a GenVec release said.

"These funds will help us further develop our technology platform, which has the promise of great versatility, rapid production and scalable manufacturing in the development of vaccines. The vaccines will be designed to avoid antibodies that are present in some people. While our initial development efforts will focus on an influenza vaccine, we will also be researching applications of this promising technology for a variety of other bio-defence and disease prevention applications," said C. Richter King, Ph.D., senior vice president of research at GenVec.

GenVec, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel gene-based therapeutic drugs and vaccines. GenVec has several adenovector (DNA carrier)-based vaccines currently in development against a variety of diseases, including HIV, malaria, pandemic flu and foot and mouth disease.