ATCC Announces Awards from DTRA that Strengthen ATCC’s Antiviral Drug Discovery and Development Portfolio for Global Health and Biodefense

ATCC, the world's premier biological materials management and standards organization, announced that it has been awarded three grants valued at over $5.5 million by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). The work will identify and characterize novel therapeutic approaches to viruses of global health concern. Promising therapeutic candidates will be tested for efficacy with in vitro and in vivo model systems.

"ATCC is committed to supporting this global health initiative by providing the novel scientific research and development solutions needed to address these high-morbidity and mortality infectious disease outcomes," said Raymond H. Cypess, D.V.M., Ph.D., chairman and CEO of ATCC. “Through our new partnership with DTRA, we now have the opportunity to focus on the development of novel machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) models for countermeasure identification that may lead to better vaccine and therapeutic solutions, which are needed to save lives."

Specifically, ATCC's role will be to employ multiple experimental platforms to define new targets for therapeutics, evaluate novel and/or FDA-approved candidates for antiviral and anti-inflammatory activities, and define relevant infection-associated biomarkers. This information will be used to develop AI models of disease and therapeutic effectiveness. ATCC will also employ ML/AI strategies to integrate the cellular response datasets and identify broad-spectrum therapeutic candidates to combat various pathogens. The promising candidates will be tested with novel organoid models (organ-on-a-chip) in an iterative and sequential transition from in vitro to in vivo platforms. This is seen as a critical step in the one-drug-many-bugs approach to antiviral product development and will be an important contribution to improving our country's pandemic preparedness resiliency in dealing with the current and future challenges.

"ATCC is proud to provide its expertise in global health and biodefense to support federal infectious disease research and development programs and the DoD with this new grant from DTRA," said Joseph Leonelli, Ph.D., senior vice president of ATCC Federal Solutions (AFS). 

Dr. Aarthi Narayanan, director of Translational Research and Technology Transfer at ATCC, will lead this research. She brings her deep expertise in virology and preclinical product development to the AFS team and oversees translating cutting-edge research into technologies and products that will continue to improve global health and biodefense.

ATCC is a premier global biological materials and information resource and standards organization and the leading developer and supplier of authenticated cell lines, microorganisms, and associated data for academia, industry, and government. With a history of scientific contributions spanning nearly a century, ATCC offers an unmatched combination of being the world’s largest and most diverse collection of biological reference materials and data, and is a mission-driven, trusted partner that supports and encourages scientific collaboration. ATCC products, services, partnerships, and people provide the global scientific community with credible, advanced, model systems to support complex research and innovations in basic science, drug discovery, translational medicine, and public health. ATCC is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with headquarters in Manassas, Virginia, and a research and technology center of excellence in Gaithersburg, Maryland. 

Contact: Kim Testa, senior director, Corporate Communications & Public Affairs, ATCC, [email protected]