Vaccines & Immune Biology

A One Health approach to Japanese encephalitis in Bangladesh: Vaccinating pigs to save human lives

Problem: Toxoplasma gondii is the cause of toxoplasmosis in man and animals. To date, no vaccine is available in human to control the disease. In this project, a multiprotein vaccine will be developed using ROP18, SAG1 and AMA1. The recombinant proteins will be encapsulated in nanoparticles and administrated intranasally in mice. Future Perspectives: To develop vaccine strategy in sheep and humans because one third of our earth's population is infected with toxoplasmosis, and it causes abortions in sheep.

Reliable and affordable source of vaccines for developing countries are critical. This technology can substantially improve vaccine yields obtained from cell cultures and propose to apply it to make influenza vaccines with the help of strategic partners in Canada and in developing countries"

Identification of Novel Vaccine Candidates for African Trypanosomiasis

Colombian men exposed to malaria are found to have antibodies that can prevent infection in the placenta of a pregnant woman. This University of Alberta finding forms the basis for developing a novel vaccine against several forms of malaria, which cause 10,000 maternal deaths and 200,000 stillbirths annually. We discovered that men exposed to malaria have antibodies that can prevent infection in the placenta. This unexpected finding forms the basis of a novel approach to a vaccine that protects pregnant women exposed to multiple species of malaria.

To eradicate malaria, it is crucial to counter P. vivax that is more widespread than P. falciparum. Our idea is to develop novel vaccines that target P. vivax by blocking its invasion of human red cells and reduce disease burden.

Despite years of intensive efforts using conventional approaches to vaccine design, there is currently no effective vaccine against malaria. New approaches are crucial. The ""Plant virus based nanoparticles as an adjuvant for the development of an efficient and low cost vaccine against malaria"project aims to use nanoparticles derived from papaya mosaic virus (PapMV-NP) as an adjuvant to develop a novel malaria vaccine that would be safe, efficacious and low-cost.

Barcodes for improved child vaccination and family nutrition is a new approach by University of Nairobi innovators to address pockets of under-vaccination among children under-5 in rural Kenya. This novel "seed voucher for vaccination" is expected to increase uptake of immunization services while stimulating food production on small farms.

Tim Karr of Arizona State University in the U.S. will develop live bacterial-based contraceptive vaccines that deliver testis- and sperm-specific antigens to sterilize rodent populations that destroy food crops. They will also develop an oral bait that can safely and effectively introduce these contraceptive vaccines to the pests.

Axel Heiser of AgResearch Ltd. in New Zealand proposes to develop a new type of tuberculosis vaccine that uses polyester biobeads produced in mycobacteria that carry a large repertoire of known and undiscovered antigens on their surface. This new technology combines the multiple antigenic benefits of live vaccines with a better safety profile and lower costs of production.