cde innate response for targets webinar

Centre Defence Enterprise

for

Themed Competition Webinar

© Crown copyright 2013 Dstl

20 May 2014

The aim of CDE

Technology

Best providers

Barriers

20 May 2014

Funding research

Two routes to funding

Enduring

Themed

Themed competition

Requirements

Bounded

Specific

CDE themed competition

Innate response targets for therapy

Enduring challenge competition

Perpetual

Radical

£3M per year

Dstl is part of the Ministry of Defence

UNCLASSIFIED / For Public Release

Centre for Defence Enterprise www.science.mod.uk/enterprise [email protected]

Crown Copyright Dstl 2012

Enduring challenges

• protection • situational awareness • power • communications • data • lethality • mobility • human performance • lower cost of ownership • new capabilities

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CDE Portal

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CDE Innovation Network

Innate response targets for therapy

CDE themed competition March 25 - June 5 2014

20 May 2014

Key dates

• Competition launches today • Presentation to follow • Opportunity for Q&A • Webinar Tuesday 1 April • Deadline for applications Thursday 5 June 2014 at 17:00 hrs via Centre for Defence Enterprise Portal • Funding decisions to be made July 2014 • Notifications end July


20 May 2014

Background: biothreat agents

• Pathogenic for man or animals

• Very low infectious dose

• Infectious via the inhalational route

• Cause endemic disease around world

• Usually are zoonotic diseases

• Lethal or incapacitating


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Defence against biothreats

• Many potential biothreat agents • How to defend against them? • Impossible to make a vaccine/therapy for every potential agent • Require generic therapy

Generic approach to therapy • By influencing the host response

• Requires an understanding of the host response to pathogen & safe ways to influence it

• Requires identification of relevant targets or pathways in the host

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Innate (host) response targets for therapy

• Objective of this competition is to look broadly across research and development to identify host cell targets and pathways

• Using data derived from diverse infection models

• Respondents to competition do not need to work directly with biothreat agents

• Ultimate aim is to apply the most innovative approaches to biothreat agents

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CDE themed competition specifics • Seeking innovative proposals for short projects (<1year); £30-

80k guide; (£500k total budget)

• Show proof-of-concept for your proposal; there is funding allocated for follow-on work for successful projects

• Competition divided into 3 challenges

• Respondents need to address 1 of the challenges, may address >1, do not have to address all 3

• Challenges described fully in the competition document

• Bids must be ethical and compliant with UK government legislation

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Challenge 1


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Identification of new cellular or host pathway targets

Identification of new cellular or host pathway targets • In host-pathogen model of your choice

– Does not need to be a biodefence pathogen – Does not need to be in vivo

• Conditioning of cells ex vivo eg to profile responses or prior to adoptive transfer

• Targeting cells in situ eg – to refocus them – to activate them – to induce them to traffic – to redirect them


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Identification of new cellular or host pathway targets May involve the identification of eg • immuno stimulants • modulators • transfection factors • chemokines, cytokines or the induction (or blockade) of these • cytokine/chemokine/growth factor receptors and application of these to modulate host responses


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Identification of new cellular or host pathway targets

• Some of these may be

exogenous and some endogenous factors

• Some endogenous natural

regulators /regulatory pathways may be exploited

• to reduce inflammation and to restore homeostasis


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Normal

Overactive Underactive

Possible outcomes Proposals for

– identification of new cellular targets /pathways – new applications of manipulating known cellular targets/pathways – demonstration that targets may be influenced beneficially, for

example to: • prevent cytotoxicity • prevent/reduce microbial invasion • reduce microbial load • restore normal cell function


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Challenge 2

Identification of new candidate therapies


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Identification of new candidate therapies Exploit appropriate cellular targets and pathways to identify new therapies by, for example:

• enhancing cell-mediated immunity • investigating novel combinations • identification and manipulation of significant

transcription factors • micro RNA-directed therapies or antagonists


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Possible outcomes • Candidate therapies should be druggable and generic • Proposals should show proof-of-concept

• Does not exclude the re-purposing or augmentation of existing

therapies


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Challenge 3

Identification of new platform technologies


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Identification of new platform technologies

For assessing therapeutic benefit • Novel technologies such as:

• non-invasive methods of in-vivo/ex-vivo analysis eg bio-imaging or tracking

• Transcriptomics including micro RNA analysis

• In-silico modelling of host responses

• Novel assays to monitor the host immune response


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Possible outcomes

• New technologies which may facilitate the identification and development of candidate therapies

• Proposals should demonstrate the impact of the technology on therapeutic development


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What we want • Highly innovative approaches that are significantly different from

existing technologies

• Generally technology readiness level (TRL) ≤ 3

• Generic approaches (not pathogen specific)

• Approaches applicable to intracellular pathogens where

appropriate

• Approaches that will lead to a feasible clinical product


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What we don’t want Proposals that concern: • high technology readiness level (TRL) capability • serological targets only (rather than cellular) • antibody-based therapies (but antibodies as a targeting

mechanism are acceptable) • existing solutions or technology already tested and found to

have limited utility • a paper study or review or similar • pre-exposure therapies or therapeutics • topical therapies for wounds


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Successful proposals

• Each will be assigned a Technical Partner

– Provides interface between project and defence community

– If project successful, potential routes to exploitation developed


20 May 2014

Summary

• Competition launches today • Webinar Tuesday 1 April • Closes on Thursday 5 June 2014 at 17:00 hrs • Short proof-of-concept proposals • If successful, potential for follow-on funding • May include additional research to develop technology for MOD • Competition information available on CDE website

www.science.mod.uk


20 May 2014

Questions?


20 May 2014





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