The new Hendra virus vaccine released by Pfizer in 2012

Integrated Research Associates was founded by Katharine N. Bossart in 2011. Dr Bossart holds a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology and has worked in government and academia for over 20 years. Her career has focused on developing therapeutic drugs and vaccines for human viruses and her work on Hendra and Nipah viruses, two highly lethal viruses, lead to the invention, development and eventual deployment of a successful vaccine to combat Hendra virus in Australia. Her research interests also include flaviviruses and enteroviruses and the company is actively developing countermeasures for many viruses of public health concern. In 2016 Mary Jane Cardosa joined Integrated Research Assocaites as Chief Technical Officer. Dr. Cardosa has also dedicated her career to public health and she is a well-known expert in dengue, Japanaese encephalitis virus and the enteroviruses, especially, enterovirus 71. In addition to directing the Institute of Community Health and Medicine for many years, she has also been on the Executive team of several biotechnology companies in Malaysia focused on developing countermeasures for Neglected Tropical Diseases. Twenty-five years ago Dr. Cardosa identified enterovirus 71 as the cause of severe neurological disease in children, and most recently she invented, developed and completed a Phase I clinical trial of a viable virus-like particle vaccine candidate for enterovirus 71. Dr. Bossart and Dr. Cardosa have collaborated extensively prior to joining forces at Integrated Research and notably, their work previously identified a highly novel divergent strain of dengue virus known as DKE 121 that doesn't quite belong to any of the known dengue virus serotypes. Discovery and development of therapeutics, vaccines and diagnostic reagents for viruses of public health concern such as DKE 121 are the primary goals and objectives of the company.

At Integrated Research Associates novel therapeutic drugs are created by identifying and isolating small molecules known as antibodies that are made naturally by the immune system and optimizing their structure and activity to maximize their therapeutic potential. Although therapeutic antibodies are an important tool in public health preparedness, vaccines have long been the gold standard for optimal public health benefit. Integrated Research Associates has patented and is currently developing a novel virus-like-particle vaccine platform that is applicable to numerous envelope viruses. If successful, our platform could significantly impact how human vaccines are manufactured. For both therapeutic drug candidates and potential vaccine candidates, efficacy is evaluated using preclinical models of infectious disease to further identify leading candidates.

Integrated Research Associates has put together an extensive panel of reagents used for research and development purposes pertaining to dengue virus, Zika virus, Japanese encephalitis virus, enterovirus 68 and enterovirus 71. We have compiled a product list that we now offer for purchase that includes both inactivated viral antigens as well as type-specific and cross-reactive monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). For the flaviviruses, most mAbs target the envelope protein; however, a small panel of mAbs bind nonstructural protein-1 of various flaviviruses. Importantly, we have also identified a list of our mAbs that bind and detect the highly divergent dengue strain DKE 121. For more information please visit our product page. We hope that other researchers will find these reagents useful for quality control.