$3.8 million NIH grant to study viral hemorrhagic fevers awarded

A research team led by Robert Garry, professor of microbiology and immunology at the Tulane University School of Medicine, won $3.8 million from the National Institutes of Health to develop and manufacture improved diagnostic tests for viral hemorrhagic fevers. Other members of the grant team are Corgenix Medical Corporation (OTC BB: CONX), Autoimmune Technologies of New Orleans, BioFactura of Rockville, Maryland, and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Ft. Detrick, Maryland.

Tulane will lead the three-year study, which will focus on tests to rapidly diagnose viral hemorrhagic fevers, considered likely bioterrorism agents due to their ease of transmission and high fatality rate. The project aims to develop tests that would not require biosafety level 4 laboratories, the highest level of certification, for use. “These new products, which will utilize our proprietary ELISA technology, will compliment our existing diagnostic product portfolio and extend our company’s reach into the bioterrorism diagnostic test field,” said Douglass Simpson, president and CEO of Corgenix.

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