Versatope Therapeutics has been awarded a Phase 1 Small Business and Innovation Award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to develop a novel vaccine for the prevention and possible treatment for Clostridioides difficile, also known as C. diff.

C. diff is a bacterium that causes diarrhea and colitis (an inflammation of the colon). According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), there are about 500,000 cases in the United States annually, with almost 20% infection recurrence within 2-8 weeks. Approximately 1 in 11 infected people over the age of 65 die of the C. diff infection, or 15,000 people per year. The NIAID grant will support Versatope's goal of producing a C. diff vaccine designed to protect against recurring disease by using exosome-like bacterial vesicles. NIAID funding will support early stage manufacturing, stability and preclinical studies to demonstrate safety and tolerability.

"The support from NIAID will enable Versatope to apply its bioinformatic and structure-based vaccine approach to new bacterial infection targets and deliver novel C. diff vaccine candidates," said Christopher Locher, Ph.D., CEO of Versatope Therapeutics, Inc.

"We are proud to have Versatope as an M2D2 resident company. They are a talented, top-notch team and it is very rewarding to watch their successes as they develop a novel vaccine technology," said Mary Ann Picard, University of Massachusetts Lowell – Director of Operations, M2D2.

"We are proud to have Versatope as part of the Massachusetts life sciences community and look forward to their successes as they advance their cutting-edge vaccine technology for patients around the world," said Robert K. Coughlin, President & CEO of MassBio.

This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Award no. R43AI149901, entitled, "Novel C. Difficile Vaccine Using Nano-vesicle Delivery System."