The Company

TurboVax Inc., a Delaware C-corporation, USA was founded on June 26, 2023, by Kishore R. Alugupalli, PhD, an immunologist with extensive academic background in a variety of bacterial systems for more than 3 decades. Dr. Alugupalli is the CEO of the company. TurboVax Inc. is interested in commercialization of an indispensable and path-breaking immunological adjuvant platform named Turbo to be incorporated into bacterial glycoconjugate (bacteria-specific polysaccharide antigen coupled to a carrier protein) and bacterial protein subunit vaccines. 

​​

The problem to be addressed

Bacterial infections and the threat of antimicrobial resistance is a major global health problem. Vaccination is the most effective and proven means to control infectious diseases. Glycoconjugate vaccines indeed can protect against wide range of bacterial infections, but glycoconjugate vaccines are not very immunogenic. To induce an optimal antibody titer required for a protective threshold in infants, as many as 4 immunizations over a period of 12-15 months are needed. This strategy is neither cost- nor compliance-effective due to the need for multiple vaccine vials and periodic visits to the clinic for multiple immunization schedules, regardless of the economic status of a country.

​

The scientific breakthrough led to an innovative solution

Adjuvants are essential for immune responses to many vaccines, in particular bacterial glycoconjugate vaccines based on their crucial role in activating of the immune system. Surprisingly, majority of bacterial glycoconjugate vaccines do not incorporate adjuvants and the basis for immunogenicity of such vaccines has been a mystery for decades. We uncovered the molecular basis for the "endogenous adjuvant-like activity" of such glycoconjugate vaccines. The amount of this adjuvant-like component that contribute to the immunogenicity of these vaccines is highly variable from one vaccine to the other and one lot to the other lot of the same vaccine. Our findings explain a basis for the poor immunogenicity unadjuvanted vaccines and the requirement for boosters for many glycoconjugate vaccines. Based on our discovery we developed Turbo, an adjuvant formulation to target B cell-centric functions that are crucial for inducing efficient immune responses to glycoconjugate vaccines.

​

​The rigor of Turbo adjuvanticity has been tested extensively using unadjuvanted FDA-approved or WHO-prequalified bacterial glycoconjugate vaccines or hapten coupled proteins, which are widely used as model antigen systems that led to the invention of bacterial glycoconjugate vaccines. When Turbo was admixed with these vaccines/antigens: 

​

- A heightened, long-lasting, and highly protective immune responses occurred across all ages.

- Turbo as an adjuvant minimized or eliminated the need for boosters to generate a highly durable antibody response. 

- Compared to the FDA approved Aluminum-based adjuvant, Turbo as an adjuvant induced high affinity IgG antibodies of all isotypes. Since the effector function against a given bacterial pathogen is dependent on the IgG isotype, our work  indicate that multi-functional protective mechanisms can be achieved with Turbo-adjuvanted glycoconjugate vaccines.

​

Our science speaks for itself, as we have elucidated not only the molecular mechanism of Turbo adjuvanticity but more importantly the proof of principle. When Turbo is incorporated into any bacterial glycoconjugate, a single dose glycoconjugate vaccine can be developed against wide range of bacterial pathogens. Therefore, a single dose Turbo-adjuvanted vaccine approach is expected to be cost- and compliance-effective for global population.

Our Vision 

By partnering with Vaccine developers/manufacturers and by collaborating with Academic researchers across the globe, TurboVax Inc as the adjuvant developer/provider will develop a safe and highly-effective Turbo-adjuvanted bacterial glycoconjugate vaccines and contribute to decrease the threat of antimicrobial resistance and minimize the overall bacterial disease burden globally.

 

Innovation and Intellectual Property

Innovation came entirely from Dr. Alugupalli’s academic research of over 25 years. Two provisional patents and a PCT (International publication number: WO 2024/124052 A1) been filed on behalf Dr. Alugupalli as the sole inventor by the Thomas Jefferson University. TurboVax Inc. is an independent company and is the exclusive holder of the license on Turbo adjuvant technology and methods of use for bacterial glycoconjugate vaccines.