This week, Sanofi Pasteur VaxDesign Corp. in Orlando announced it got a $15.1 million U.S. Department of Defense contract.

So what will it be doing? And, more importantly, is it classified?

The short version is it will be testing vaccines for two viruses and a toxin. VaxDesign — acquired in 2010 for $60 million by Lyon, France-based Sanofi Pasteur — got the contract because it has developed the MIMIC (modular immune in vitro construct) system. MIMIC is better known as a human immune system in a tube, and can test how the human body will react to a vaccine.

I talked with VaxDesign founder Bill Warren, who now heads up its campus, about the local impact of the contract:

What we’ll be doing for the Department of Defense: This is related to tularemia (also known as deer-fly fever), Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (a mosquito-born virus that causes swelling of the brain) and ricin (a toxin). We’re doing vaccine assessment as well as trying to understand how vaccines can be effective longer. With some vaccines, like yellow fever, you’re protected for life. Other ones you’re not. They want to understand the signals that lead to longer effectiveness.