AVT News
February 2007
AVT graduated from the MTDC incubator facility and moved operations into 19,000 ft2 of commercial space in Gaithersburg, MD.
September 2006
AVT was awarded a ninth SBIR grant from the National Institute of General and Medical Sciences at NIH for the development of a novel, pseudotyped lentiviral vector.
June 2006
AVT was awarded an eighth SBIR grant from the National Institute of General and Medical Sciences at NIH for evaluation of a novel strategy to direct site-specific vector integration.
October 2005
AVT was awarded a seventh SBIR grant from the National Eye Institute at NIH. This grant is a Phase II continuation of the Fast Track award for the evaluation of a novel therapy to treat wet age-related macular degeneration.
September 2005
AVT was awarded a sixth SBIR grant from the National Eye Institute at NIH for the evaluation of a novel anti-angiogenic factor for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration.
April 2005
Dr. Kaleko was invited to Chicago Chapter of the Foundation Fighting Blindness to present the recent AVT achievements and to speak more generally on strategies to encourage the pharmaceutical industry to develop products for small market diseases.
March 2005
Dr. Kaleko was invited to present the AVT research achievements at the 2nd Annual Ocular Angiogenesis Conference in Cambridge, MA in a talk, "Lentiviral Vector-Mediated Gene Therapy for Ocular Neovascularization."
February 2005
AVT was awarded a fifth Phase I SBIR grant from the National Eye Institute at NIH for the evaluation of the novel retinal nurturing factor, RdCVF, for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa. These studies will be performed in collaboration with Jose Sahel and Thierry Leveillard, in Paris, the researchers who discovered RdCVF.
September 2004
AVT was awarded a fourth Phase I SBIR grant from the National Eye Institute at NIH for the evaluation of its gene transfer technology in primate models. These studies will be performed in collaboration with Dr. Jean Bennett at the University of Pennsylvania.
August 27, 2004
AVT was featured in the Washington Post Business Journal, "Breaking Out of its Cell."
August 16, 2004
AVT was featured in the Washington Post Business Section "Start-Up" column, "Promoting a Shared Vision."
August 2004
Dr. Kaleko was invited to speak at the Foundation Fighting Blindness VISIONS 2004 Conference on the topic: Engaging Pharmaceutical Companies to work on Retinal Diseases.
June 16, 2004
AVT was named the Best New Incubator Company, in the Technology Transfer category, at Maryland Business Incubation Association's fourth annual awards, a statewide group. The awards, whose winners were chosen by a selection committee comprised of venture capitalists and government and business leaders, recognized the achievements of current and graduate companies of Maryland's incubators.
May 6, 2004
AVT was selected as a winner in the ASMR 2nd Annual Early-Stage Venture Competition.
May 1, 2004
AVT was awarded a third Phase I SBIR grant from the National Eye Institute at NIH for the development of a Novel Lentiviral Vector with Regulatable Gene Expression.
May 2004
AVT was awarded a second investment of $50,000 from the Maryland Department of Economic Development Challenge Investment Program.
April 2004
AVT was awarded a second Phase I SBIR grant from the National Institute of General and Medical Sciences at NIH for Development of Novel BIV-based Lentiviral Vectors.
February 2004
AVT was awarded the Phase I component of a Fast-Track SBIR grant from the National Eye Institute at NIH for the evaluation of a novel therapy for wet age-related macular degeneration.
January 2004
AVT was awarded $50,000 from the Maryland Department of Economic Development Challenge Investment Program.
November 2003
AVT was awarded $50,000 from the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) Maryland Technology Transfer Fund.
AVT will use this award to complete the evaluation of their first product for the treatment of wet AMD in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University Wilmer Eye Institute.
November 2003
AVT was selected as the "Best Presenter" at the Early Stage East Bio-Life-Tech conference held in Baltimore.
October 2003
AVT was awarded $70,000 from the Montgomery County, MD Technology Growth Program. AVT will use this award to complete the set-up of the AVT laboratories in the Maryland Technology Development Center.