High Quality AAV Viral Preparations

This is a Notice of Intent, not a request for proposal. The Vaccine Research Center(VRC)/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) intends to procure on an other than full and open competition basis with The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital for High Quality AAV Viral Preparations with different vector serotypes (AAV1, AAV6) that have been purified and passed rigorous quality control standards. The Vaccine Research Center (VRC) requires high quality AAV viral preparations for use as a vaccine in animal studies. The VRC is developing vaccines against several respiratory pathogens that have global health impact and for which a vaccine is of utmost importance one of which is Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). RSV is relatively stable antigenically, yet most adults are re-infected every few years, suggesting natural immunity is not long-lasting. Passive immunization is used to prevent RSV infection in infants considered at high-risk for severe RSV infection, yet the majority of infants hospitalized for RSV infection will not fall in the high-risk group. Studies have shown that vector-mediated gene transfer (AAV) has great promise in vaccine development due to its ability to bypass the adaptive immune system. Our studies focus on construction of an AAV vector to deliver a RSV neutralizing antibody of choice and on characterizing in vivo production of this antibody, assess whether it protects against RSV challenge. To carry out our in vivo studies the VRC requires a streamlined, trustworthy and repetitive production of AAV viral preparations for use in animal studies, which is only available through the Viral Vector Core at Nationwide Children's Hospital.