Eckard Wimmer

Equity Interest - Non-publicly traded entity ( e.g., stock, stock option, or other ownership interest)

Chikungunya vaccine candidate developed by codon pair de-optimization

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an important and dangerous viral pathogen that has spread around the world in recent years. In the 2005-2006 chikungunya fever epidemic in the Indian Ocean island of La Reunion millions of people have been infected in more than 40 countries including India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, the United States, and some European countries. The virus and associated disease were named from clinical symptoms: ?chikungunya? means ?stooped walk? in the local language, and refers to painful arthralgia that can last for months. Other clinical symptoms are similar to those of dengue fever, including fever, nausea, myalgia and rash. Since its discovery, CHIKV has been somewhat ignored by scientists except when it has caused large human outbreaks. There is a risk that the virus will be imported to new areas by infected travelers. CHIKV is transmitted to humans from infected non-human primates and other humans by the bite of Aedes mosquitoes. Evidence exists that CHIKV can also be passed from an infected mother to a developing foetus. Furthermore, inhalation of aerosolized CHIKV in a laboratory setting may lead to CHIKV infection. There is no vaccine to prevent or medicine to treat chikungunya virus infection. Our aim is to develop a novel live vaccine candidate to prevent CHIKV disease, using a specific recoding design of its RNA genome, based on our recent highly successful studies with other plus and minus strand RNA viruses.