TheraVac’s Scientific Co-Founder, Dr. Kiran Bhaskar, featured in Inside Precision Medicine’s article, “Stopping Neurodegeneration in Place with Vaccines”
July 20, 2026, ALBUQUERQUE, NM & MISSISSAUGA, ON – TheraVac Biologics is advancing a novel therapeutic vaccine for Alzheimer’s disease that has the potential to redefine how neurodegenerative disorders are treated. The Company’s pioneering neuroscientist, Kiran Bhaskar, Ph.D., was recently featured in Inside Precision Medicine’s article, “Stopping Neurodegeneration in Place with Vaccines,” which explores the growing momentum behind vaccine-based active immunotherapies targeting Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.
Dr. Bhaskar, Professor at the University of New Mexico and Scientific Co-Founder of TheraVac Biologics, has spent years investigating the role of tau pathology in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). His research has led to the development of TheraVac’s proprietary virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine platform, which is advancing toward human clinical studies.
Unlike passive monoclonal antibody therapies, TheraVac’s active immunotherapy platform stimulates the body’s own immune system to generate antibodies against disease-causing proteins. While recently approved monoclonal antibodies, including lecanemab and donanemab, have demonstrated that disease modification in Alzheimer’s disease is possible, their clinical use is limited by modest efficacy, high cost, frequent intravenous infusions, and the risk of amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA).
“Current antibody therapies have demonstrated that modifying disease biology is possible, but they also highlight the need for treatments that are safer, less burdensome, and more accessible,” said Dr. Bhaskar. “Our goal at TheraVac is to harness the body’s natural immune response to generate highly specific antibodies against pathological tau while eliminating the need for traditional vaccine adjuvants.”
TheraVac’s vaccine platform utilizes virus-like particles to activate the immune system without the use of inflammatory adjuvants. By displaying phosphorylated tau proteins on the surface of the VLPs, the vaccine trains the immune system to recognize and target disease-associated tau while minimizing unwanted immune activation that may contribute to adverse effects such as ARIA.
As Dr. Bhaskar explained in the article:
“You don’t need to expect any side effects because of adjuvants. In this way, we trick the immune system into thinking that there is a viral attack on the body. It immediately starts an immune response against the virus-like particle and also anything sticking to the surface of those virus-like particles, which in this case is pathological or phosphorylated tau proteins.”
The feature highlights the growing interest in active immunotherapy as a potentially safer, more durable, and cost-effective alternative to passive antibody treatments. Advances in biomarkers, vaccine engineering, and disease biology are accelerating the development of next-generation therapies designed to intervene earlier in the course of neurodegenerative disease.
“The active immunotherapy field has reached an important inflection point,” said Ali Riazi Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of TheraVac Biologics. “The recent success of disease-modifying antibodies has validated the biology behind targeting neurodegenerative diseases while underscoring the need for therapies that are safer, more durable, and more accessible for patients. We are seeing growing enthusiasm from the scientific community, investors, and strategic partners for active immunotherapy approaches, and we believe TheraVac’s virus-like particle platform is uniquely positioned to help define the next generation of Alzheimer’s therapeutics. As our program advances toward the clinic, we are encouraged by the increasing recognition that active immunization may offer a transformative path forward for patients and their families.”
About TheraVac Biologics
TheraVac Biologics is developing a novel active immunotherapy approach that targets protein misfolding and chronic inflammation, the main hallmarks of neurodegenerative and aging-related inflammatory diseases. TheraVac’s current lead vaccine asset, TV-301, has demonstrated excellent safety, immune response and efficacy in various animal models and is expected to offer a convenient, safe, and efficacious addition to the current standard of treatment for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. For more information, visit https://theravacbio.com/ or contact us at contact@theravacbio.com