A few days ago Mapp Biopharmaceutical was an obscure little biotech with a handful of staffers. Now the private company is a central player in a drama involving two Americans whose lives may have been saved by Mapp's experimental antibody cocktail after they were stricken by Ebola. The San Diego Union-Tribune, meanwhile, has added a key investigator from Scripps, where Erica Ollmann Saphire has been working with Mapp and others to find a therapy that works, funded with a grant from the NIH. "There's a lot of hope that we will be able to develop something for both treatment and prevention in the long term," Saphire told the U-T. "The virus is one of the most lethal that we know. It's difficult to fight. But the antibodies are working remarkably well, so there's a lot of hope." As for Mapp, the private company isn't taking advantage of the overnight media sensation, preferring to stay mum for now. Story