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Artificial Cell Technologies, Inc. (ACT) is a development-stage biotechnology company developing unique synthetic vaccines utilizing a proprietary and patent-protected technology platform of ultra-thin multilayer polypeptide nanofilms. The company’s headquarters and laboratory facilities are located in New Haven, CT.

ACT engineers and produces multilayer nanofilm-based vaccines using a method known as electrostatic layer-by-layer self-assembly. Polypeptides with alternating opposite net electrical charge are assembled one layer at a time and adhere to the surface by electrostatic attraction. Key immunogenic epitopes from pathogenic organisms are incorporated into the nanofilm structure or on its surface during assembly. We call the resulting synthetic antigen carriers “Artificial Viruses”.

ACT’s technology represents an entirely new approach to vaccines that is uniquely capable of more fully mimicking the immunogenic properties of a pathogenic organism and at the same time influencing the molecular and biological pathways of immune response. 



Advantages of ACT’s vaccine technology include:

• Increases the immunogenicity of weakly or non-immunogenic antigens without the use of adjuvants
• Reduces antigen dose required for immunization dramatically reducing cost of materials
• Rapid synthetic manufacture with no egg or cell culture required, greatly reducing the chance of contamination and allowing a much faster time to market
• Flexible design and production platform readily allows for multivalent or combination vaccines
• Constructs are shelf stable at room temperature with a long shelf life; no cold chain storage required

ACT's lead product candidates are vaccines for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and malaria.