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Newsletter October 2014

Chiara Morandi

New affiliated members

ADITEC aims to produce new knowledge for the next generation of new human vaccines. This goal requires a multidisciplinary approach where diverse and complementary scientific disciplines and technologies converge. Besides the interaction between the current 42 full project members, ADITEC introduced the option to become an affiliated project member: organisations whill have full access to ADITEC’s dissemination activities, training programs, impact sharing activities and opportunities for commissioned research undertaken by ADITEC members.

ADITEC is pleased to announce a new affiliated member: Cilian AG (Germany). Cilian is a biotechnology company, which uses the singular abilities of Ciliates, a class of eukaryotic micro-organisms, for the industrial production of therapeutic proteins. Cilian has developed a marketable expression technology, brand named CIPEX, which has been optimized for the industrial production of complex recombinant drug proteins (biopharmaceuticals). The expression system is ready to be utilized for production of a variety of biological compounds, specifically monoclonal antibodies with improved effector functions as well as viral and protozoan vaccines. Read more about the Affiliated Members

Call for ADITEC training module in adjuvants and vaccine formulation

Partners of the ADITEC consortium are presenting the third course on adjuvants and vaccine formulation.
Dates: 9-13 February 2015
Location: Vaccine Formulation Laboratory at University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Topics: Formulation and characterization of Aluminum salts, Water-in-Oil emulsions, Oil-in-Water emulsions, and Liposomes.
This 5-day course will combine background information with practical demonstrations and hands-on training. In small groups, participants will learn and practice different formulation techniques and a variety of standard assays for characterization and quality control of adjuvanted vaccines.

ADVAC course

ADITEC partner University of Geneva organises, together with Insitut Mérieux, organise the 14th Advanced Vaccinology Course (ADVAC) in Les Pensières, Veyrier du Lac (French Alps).

ADVAC is a two-week training programme for decision-makers, including academia, industry, governmental and non-governmental agencies, in all fields related to vaccines and vaccination, vaccine trials, new vaccines, vaccination strategies and policies, vaccine-specific issues (including hepatitis, meningitis, polio, measles, pneumococcal diseases, influenza, malaria, HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis, HPV, rotavirus, dengue & JE), ethical issues related to vaccine trials, financing of immunization policy, communication.

ADVAC has over 60 top-level international lecturers and working group supervisors, all experts in vaccinology, including several specialsts from Aditec’s network. The 16th ADVAC course will take place from 11 to 22 May 2015 in Veyrier-du-Lac (Annecy, France). Application deadline: 15 November 2014.

Influenza: Striking differences in the response to immunisation in early childhood

Adjuvanted trivalent influenza vaccine: a randomised controlled trial to determine the kinetics of the functional genomic response in young children.
In the 2012 influenza season, ADITEC partners (University of Geneva, University of Oxford, Emory University Atlanta and Novartis) conducted a randomised controlled trial to assess the kinetics of the functional genomic response to adjuvanted trivalent influenza vaccine (TIV) in comparison with standard seasonal TIV and correlated with immunophenotypical data. Two doses of vaccine were administered one month apart. There were questions over the feasibility of using the systems immunology approach to vaccine assessment in young children (14-24 months in this trial) since only small volumes of blood (6mls) could be obtained for the study.

Partner profile: Leiden University Medical Center

Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) is a medical centre of excellence that provides clinical inpatient and outpatient care, modern education, and innovative basic, translational and clinical research, pursuing excellence in each of these areas. The Department of Infectious Diseases at LUMC has a longstanding tradition in trying to understand host responses to infection, and to unravel underlying mechanisms of protective and pathologic immunity. A particular focus is on mycobacterial infections such as leprosy and tuberculosis, but also related infectious diseases caused by intracellular pathogens, and include the design of more effective intervention strategies (vaccines, treatments, diagnostics). Read more about Leiden University Medical Center

Decision on the call for EC funded Commissioned Research

On April 17 ADITEC launched a call for proposals which will provide SMEs and public health organizations interested in vaccine R&D free access to consortium ‘in house’ vaccinology expertise and technologies valued up to € 100,000 per proposal. There is a maximum of € 1.3 million available for this activity over the term of the ADITEC project, € 100,000 budget limit for each application. Five applications were received. Members of the External Advisory Board and the Steering Committee closely reviewed the applications and decided to fund the proposal submitted by BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals in Mainz, Germany: Intramuscular RNA based Influenza vaccination – In Vivo efficacy testing against seasonal Influenza.

Interesting meetings

Within and outside the ADITEC network several interesting meetings will take place in the coming months. For example:

  • 13-15 Oct. 2014, Brussels: World Vaccine Congress Europe
  • 20-21 Nov. 2014, Brussels: Malaria Vaccine Development in Europe – preparing for the future
  • 21-23 Jan. 2015, Paris: Meeting of the vaccinology club of the French Society of Immunology (founded by ADITEC member Claude Leclerc, and with an opening lecture by ADITEC’s coordinator Rino Rappuoli
  • 21-24 April 2015, Shanghai, Fourth Global Forum on TB Vaccines, co-organised by ADITEC’s partner TBVI and affiliated member Aeras
  • 5-10 June 2015: ESF-EMBO Symposium: Symbiomes: Systems Biology of Host-Microbiome Interactions, Polonia Castle Pultusk. ADITEC’s coordinator Rino Rappuoli is one of the keynote speakers.

Recent publications

This is the list with recent publications related to the ADITEC project:

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