Evaxion Biotech Announces Publication of Study on S. aureus Bacterium in Scientific Reports

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, March 16, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Evaxion Biotech A/S (NASDAQ: EVAX), a clinical-stage biotechnology company specializing in the development of AI-driven immunotherapies to improve the lives of patients with cancer and infectious diseases, announced today the publication of a paper in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports, describing a study into the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). The paper can be accessed here: www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-84050-x

Evaxion partnered with the research group at the University of Southern Denmark, headed by Associate Professor Thomas E. Andersen, to characterize how pathogen and host respond to infection with S. aureus in human endothelial cells. S. aureus is a leading cause of serious bloodstream infections worldwide, such as infectious endocarditis and sepsis, which have been recognized as difficult to treat and often require intensive and prolonged antibiotic treatment.

Lars Wegner, CEO of Evaxion, said: “We are pleased to have this paper published in Scientific Reports in collaboration with the researchers at the University of Southern Denmark. We believe that the findings provide important insights into the S. aureus pathogenesis and may facilitate a better understanding of host-pathogen interactions during invasive infections. We anticipate that these new biological insights will help to inform how Evaxion uses its EDEN platform to develop targeted vaccines to combat S. aureus infections.”

The paper in Scientific Reports describes how researchers used the novel approach dual RNA sequencing to perform transcriptomic profiling of the infection cycle. The results showed activation of interferon signaling and antigen presentation by the host during the late stages of infection, while S. aureus was observed to fine-tune its production of virulence factors including toxins and its ability to scavenge iron. Evaxion believes that this may lead to a better understanding of host-pathogen interactions and potentially provide basis for current and future vaccine designs.

Evaxion’s EDEN AI platform rapidly identifies novel, highly protective antigens for the use in pathogen-specific prophylactic vaccines against bacteria. It has been designed to rapidly identify those antigens that will trigger a robust protective immune response against almost any bacterial infectious disease.

About Evaxion
Evaxion Biotech A/S is a clinical-stage AI-immunology™ platform company decoding the human immune system to discover and develop novel immunotherapies to treat cancer and infectious diseases. Based on its proprietary and scalable AI-immunology core technology, Evaxion is developing a broad pipeline of novel product candidates which currently includes three patient-specific cancer immunotherapies, two of which are in Phase I/IIa clinical development. In addition, Evaxion is advancing a portfolio of vaccine candidates to prevent bacterial and viral infections with one program currently in preclinical development against S. aureus (including Methicillin-resistant S. aureus, or MRSA) induced skin and soft tissue infections.

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