Technology
In 2005 Drs. Harris and Erdman while working at Iowa State University made a patent pending discovery describing the protective antigenic determinants (PAD) of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV). This technology has been exclusively licensed to Sirrah Bios from the ISU Research Foundation. The discovery described what proteins comprise the PAD and characteristics of those proteins that are required for cross-protection between various strains of PRRSV. This discovery has set the stage for a PAD vaccine for PRRSV that does not contain live virus, induces cross-reactive antibodies, and allows differentiation of infected from vaccinated animals (DIVA).
Completed and ongoing work using a patented replicon system has shown successful expression of the select PRRSV PAD and immunogenicity of replicon vaccines in swine. The replicon system was chosen due to previous work using replicon vaccines to protect horses from equine arteritis virus (EAV), a virus in the same family as PRRSV.
