Therapeutic antibodies specialist Integral Molecular Inc reported on Thursday the receipt of USD1m from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to enable the application of the company's technology platforms to aid in the discovery of vaccines and therapeutics to combat COVID-19.

Integral Molecular's Shotgun Mutagenesis Epitope Mapping platform precisely identifies where antibodies bind to their target proteins. It will be used to design an improved vaccine and to identify the best therapeutic antibody candidates and combination cocktails.

According to the company, its Membrane Proteome Array platform of 6,000 human proteins will be used to identify additional proteins that allow the virus to invade cells, helping to explain how the virus has been able to spread so quickly. SARS-CoV-2 Reporter Virus Particles are safe and non-replicating virus particles that display the coronavirus spike protein, the major viral protein targeted by the immune system.