Oragenics gets small business grant, seeks patent for synthetic chemistry technology

By Elaine Rigoli

Tampa, Fla., May 2 - Oragenics, Inc. has been awarded a small business innovation research phase 1 grant from the National Science Foundation for lantibiotic synthesis using the company's proprietary differentially protected orthogonal lanthionine technology.

Although the funded research will focus on the production of analogs from the potentially important class of antibiotics called lantibiotics, the technology has broader applications and may also be used for the cost-effective manufacture of a number of commercially important bioactive peptides, according to a news release.

The company has filed a U.S. patent application covering the intellectual property surrounding the lanthionine technology, a family of polycyclic peptides that are produced by bacteria and are highly modified structurally.

Attempts to study lantibiotics for their potential usefulness as therapeutic agents have been hindered by difficulties in producing sufficiently pure material in amounts adequate for the required preclinical testing.

Based in Alachua, Fla., Oragenics is a biopharmaceutical company focused on infectious disease and oncology.

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