NEW YORK (360Dx) – Vaxess Technologies announced recently that it has been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a novel heat-stable blood collection device.

According to Vaxess, the device will be based on a proprietary technology that involves extracting a protein called fibroin from silk fibers. The resulting silk protein matrix is used to encapsulate biological compounds to protect them from heat and other stresses.