Ocean Biomedical details novel malaria therapeutics discoveries at NIH lab

Ocean Biomedical announced today that its Scientific Co-founder, Jonathan Kurtis, MD, PhD, presented details of the Company’s novel malaria treatment approach to scientists at the National Institute of Health’s, NIH, Laboratory of Malaria Vaccinology and Immunology in Bethesda, MD during a meeting held last month. Building on his groundbreaking discovery that the parasite protein PfGARP is potentially a highly effective vaccine target to treat malaria, Dr. Kurtis presented data demonstrating that engagement of PfGARP is critical for regulating parasite density within the human host as it triggers the malaria parasite to kill itself. Developments shared at the meeting detail how Dr. Kurtis’ team used a novel approach to capitalize on PfGARPs ability to kill parasites, targeting it for potential drug development. The data generated by Dr. Kurtis’ lab has demonstrated that the family of small molecule candidates in development by Dr. Kurtis’ team are highly specific for PfGARP binding, are non-toxic in multiple in vitro and in vivo systems, have excellent pharmacokinetic properties, and rapidly clear parasitemia in animal models. This discovery has allowed Ocean Biomedical to begin simultaneously pursuing the development of a novel malaria vaccine, and novel malaria therapeutics.