As good as gold

Viraj Mane’s Lactiga innovates for immunity.

Words by Jessie Findlay

Viraj Mane '00

An article in his mom’s Time magazine about the “boy in the bubble” inspired Viraj Mane ’00 to become a scientist. Mane, a middle schooler in suburban New Jersey at the time, specifically recalls that the boy had a depressed immune system, forcing him to live his life in a sterile plastic “bubble.” Mane was struck by the article’s suggestion that emerging gene therapies promised to improve — if not save — the lives of immunodeficient patients. And he wanted to be a part of it. Following his parents’ mantra to “always do something to help,” Mane set out on a path that led him to the formation of his brainchild, Lactiga, an award-winning company that develops novel biologics to treat immune disorders.

“There are a few things I’m above average at, like just a short list,” Mane jokes. “But one of them is curiosity. And that kind of mindset lends itself very clearly to the sciences.” Drawn to TCNJ’s undergraduate biology program and particularly inspired by the mentorship of Professor Steve Klug, Mane thrived in the School of Science. He then went on to earn a PhD in human genetics from Baylor College of Medicine and subsequently completed two postdoctoral fellowships at the Food and Drug Administration and the University of Maryland spanning immunology, virology, drug delivery, and nanotechnology.

Despite his academic success, Mane says he wasn’t built “to do only one thing for 20 years.” So he jumped at an opportunity in portfolio management for medical countermeasures, which gave him a taste of innovative startups and entrepreneurship. He built a skill that would prove crucial to forming his own business: how to identify a medical need in the marketplace. “That’s where innovation lies,” he says.

Case in point: After becoming a father in 2012, Mane recognized the health benefits of breast milk, often referred to as liquid gold. Naturally packed with the immunological and nutritional components to help infants thrive, breast milk had long been recognized as an abundant source of antibodies that anecdotally were said to protect from or help heal conditions such as skin rashes to eye infections. Mane wondered, what if these antibodies could do more? “I knew about all these conditions of people that don’t have antibodies, like the boy in the bubble,” Mane says. “If antibodies could be extracted from milk and then made into purified therapeutic compounds and then delivered to patients who can’t make antibodies, could that correct the deficit?” And that’s when he combined his science background with his business acumen.

For seven years, Mane has worked to develop breast milk-based biologics to help manage immunodeficiencies like the one the boy in the bubble had. Today, Lactiga’s mucosaltargeted secretory IgA program, which focuses on enhancing immunity for immunodeficient patients through a novel nasal spray, has earned Orphan Drug and Rare Pediatric Disease designations from the FDA, and was awarded a highly competitive multiyear, multimillion-dollar grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. With the development of this nasal spray, Lactiga could potentially address the unmet needs of immunodeficient patients, and help save money for the health care system in the process.

And while conditions like “bubble boy disease” are uncommon in the general population, millions of people do have some type of immunodeficiency. Lactiga’s goal is to use technology to reduce risk among a range of people who are immunocompromised, such as organ transplant recipients and people living with HIV/AIDS. And perhaps it can help alleviate even common symptoms, such as those resulting from respiratory and gastrointestinal infections. “It could be a transformative paradigm shift for patients who have a very limited set of options,” Mane says. “And if this gives them hope, or if they have a new normal because of this, that, to me, is the North Star.”

Looking back at his journey, Mane is hopeful for the future of science. “Kids who are currently in middle school will be the ones who do something truly disruptive and innovative,” he says. “And that’s actually very encouraging to me.”

Photo: Peter Murphy