UMBI’s Institute of Human Virology Spins Off New Biotechnology Company
Profectus BioSciences, Inc. to Develop Products to Help Combat Spread of AIDS

BALTIMORE, MD – The Institute of Human Virology (IHV), a center within the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, and Profectus Biosciences, Inc. announced today that Profectus Biosciences has commenced operations.

The new biotechnology company will develop and commercialize technologies to reduce the morbidity and mortality caused by human viral diseases and cancers, in particular, by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the causative agent of AIDS. Profectus has exclusively licensed from UMBI certain intellectual property for HIV vaccines and therapeutics developed by scientists at the IHV.

Profectus was co-founded by Dr. Robert Gallo, Director of the IHV and co-discoverer of HIV; Dr. William Blattner, Director of the IHV’s Epidemiology and Prevention Division and an authority on AIDS and the viral epidemiology of cancer; and Dr. Robert R. Redfield, Director of the IHV’s Clinical Division who first documented the heterosexual transmission of HIV and developed the first clinical staging system.

“The creation of Profectus Biosciences, Inc. supports the mission of UMBI, and the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the State of Maryland and the three founders of the Institute of Human Virology in 1997, “said Dr. Jennie Hunter-Cevera, President of UMBI. “This initiative is in keeping with UMBI’s goal of fostering bioscience to meet societal needs and acting as an economic development engine in Maryland’s biotechnology sector.”

Profectus is a new tenant of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County's incubator, techcenter@UMBC. For more information, visit www.ProfectusBioSciences.com

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Established in 1985, the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI) is the first and only independent research institute within USM dedicated to advancing the frontiers of biotechnology. UMBI’s centers of research include: CARB, the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology located in Rockville; CBR, the Center for Biosystems Research located in College Park; COMB, the Center of Marine Biotechnology; MBC, the Medical Biotechnology Center, and IHV, the Institute of Human Virology. For more information on UMBI and IHV, visit www.umbi.umd.edu