NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – South Korea's Bioneer announced that it has received a two-year, $1.3 million grant from the Korea Health Industry Development Institute to develop an siRNA-based therapy for dengue fever.
The therapeutic is based on Bioneer's so-called self-assembled micelle inhibitory RNA, or SAMiRNA, nanoparticle technology, and incorporates siRNAs targeting the dengue virus genome.
According to the company, it has received $500,000 of the award to conduct in vivo testing of its drug in a mouse model of dengue virus infection, which will be run in collaboration with the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology.
Upon successful completion of this first stage of the project, Bioneer is eligible to receive the remaining $800,000 in 2015.