STORY OF ZEAVAXX

ZeaVaxx LLC is an Indiana-based animal healthcare company that is dedicated to improving current animal vaccines through a plant-derived nanoparticle adjuvant platform. Adjuvants are materials that are included in vaccine formulations to help achieve the optimum immune response.

​

Most current nonlive vaccines require adjuvants in their formulation due to low immunogenicity of their microbial components (antigens). However, the main type of adjuvants in animal vaccines, namely aluminum-containing adjuvants, are no longer meeting the current vaccine formulation needs. Their drawbacks include low efficacy, incompatibility when multiple antigens are coformulated, and susceptible to temperature changes.

​

ZeaVaxx LLC is solving this unmet need through its proprietary plant-derived nanoparticle adjuvant Zea-11. The platform of Zea-11 is a glucan-based nanoparticle that naturally exists in plants. It can be easily extracted and finalized through simple chemical functionalization, making Zea-11 the first nanoparticle adjuvant that is economically feasible for animal vaccines. The technology can be licensed to animal healthcare companies to be integrated into their new vaccine product lines or can be further developed into ZeaVaxx proprietary vaccines.

ZeaVaxx LLC is founded by 1) Dr. Harm HogenEsch, the Associate Dean for Research and professor of immunopathology in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Purdue University, 2) Dr. Yuan Yao, an associate professor of Food Science in the College of Agriculture at Purdue University. The whole team has more than 40 years of experience in vaccine research and chemical engineering.