NEW YORK — Embleema said on Thursday that it has received a $2 million contract from the US Food and Drug Administration to help advance the agency's Database for Reference Grade Microbial Sequences (FDA-ARGOS) for combating infectious diseases.
FDA-ARGOS is a publicly available collection of sequenced microbes, including biothreat organisms and common clinical pathogens, that are suitable for regulatory use and can be used to develop diagnostic tests for infectious diseases.
With the funding, Embleema and collaborators at George Washington University and Temple University will use the Metuchen, New Jersey-based company's high-performance integrated virtual environment, or HIVE, platform, a bioinformatics and regulatory analytics program for genomic and biomarker data, to enhance FDA-ARGOS.
"We are delighted to partner with GW and Temple University to help the FDA enable academic researchers, life sciences, health agencies, and regulators to rapidly and easily access critical information for developing new vaccines, therapies, and diagnostics faster against pathogens," Embleema CEO Robert Chu said in a statement.
According to Embleema, HIVE has been used by the FDA for regulatory decision making and research projects since 2013.