Menu Close

Newsletter January 2015

Chiara Morandi

Happy New Year!

The ADITEC project team wishes all partners, collaborators and those who are interested in our work, a very Happy New year! In 2015 we will continue developing advanced immunization technologies in order to improve health and wellness. We count on your support.

New ADITEC training on adjuvants and vaccine formulation

Partners of the ADITEC consortium are presenting the 4th course on Adjuvants and Vaccine Formulation.

Dates: 15-19 June 2015
Deadline: 28 February 2015
Location: Vaccine Formulation Laboratory at University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Topics:
This theoretical 5-day course will focus on the different vaccine adjuvant systems and will give an overview on best practices in formulation of adjuvanted vaccines. Adjuvant systems will include Aluminum salts, Water-in-Oil emulsions, Oil-in-Water emulsions, TLR agonists, Liposomes, Virosomes, QS21, ISOMs. In addition, background information on the immune system and process development, characterization, quality control, preclinical development, clinical development and regulatory aspects of adjuvanted vaccines will be provided.

Eligibility criteria: The course is open for both members of the ADITEC project, and for non-members. Only candidates working in the EU or associated member states are eligible to apply. They should have a BSc or MSc, or have demonstrable vaccine-related research experience.
The course will be open for a maximum of 12 participants.

Registration fees and costs: Participants’ course registration fees and hotel accommodation at Hôtel L’Union will be covered by the ADITEC project (reservations must be made through the course organizers). All other costs are the responsibility of the participant or their employer.

Application procedure: Applicants must use the application form. Applications must be written in English and submitted electronically to Lynn Zimmerman AND Laura Pacciarini using subject line “Adjuvant Formulation Course Application”. Applications can be submitted any time from now and must be successfully received by ADITEC no later than 28 February 2015 at 5pm GMT.
Evaluation and selection of candidates will be performed by the ADITEC Training Steering Committee. Candidates will be informed about the outcome of their application latest by 6 April 2015.
For more information on the course content contact Dr Maria Lawrenz

Master in Vaccinology and Pharmaceutical Clinical Development

ADITEC partner Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health (NVGH) organizes, together with University of Siena and Novartis Vaccines Academy, a Master programme in Vaccinology and Pharmaceutical Clinical Development in Siena Italy.
The Master is an eighteen month training programme aimed to prepare students for a career in academia, public health and research & development in public and private vaccine institutes. It combines theoretical and practical training in immunology, infectious diseases, clinical development methodology and vaccinology, from research to licensure. The training is given by worldwide vaccine experts from academia, supranational organizations (e.g. WHO, PAHO, EMA, Sabin Institute, Gates Foundation) and Industry.
The master course is conducted in English and is composed by:

  • A one year course which includes ten teaching modules on all relevant disciplines of vaccinology and clinical development and practical trainings at the University Hospital of Siena;
  • A 6-month practical internship within Novartis clinical development departments or at the University of Surrey Clinical Research Centre, or at another ADITEC partner organization clinical development department.

At the end of the Master, following discussion of a thesis, the students will receive a second level Master certificate from the University of Siena.ADITEC sponsors participation of six students to the Master. Candidates must be Medical Doctors:

  • Currently working in one of the sites of the ADITEC consortium, or
  • Currently working in a European Union or Associated Member state, or
  • Currently working in a vaccine development project funded by the European Commission or EDCTP.

Application deadline: February 3rd , 2015.

Call for EC funded commissioned research

Support for Vaccine Development
Deadline: 30 Jan 2015 5:00 p.m. CET
Anticipated Decision Date 8 April 2015

The ADITEC project is looking to support SMEs and public health organizations from within or outside the ADITEC consortium in vaccine development work. We are actively seeking research proposals clearly aimed at vaccine development, where specific support can be requested in the areas listed below. These services are offered by current ADITEC consortium partners and are available free of charge to the requesting SME or public health organization, upon approval of the proposal. ADITEC funding is available and up to 100 k€ of services may requested per project. The ADITEC project will reimburse the service-providing ADITEC partners directly for services provided. There will be no cost to the awarded SME or public health organization for the research services provided. Resulting IP will be owned by the SME or public health organization receiving the service, and maybe shared with the ADITEC partner(s) performing the research. It will be expected that results of the “commissioned research work” will be made available to European users, and the ADITEC support will be acknowledged.

ADITEC’s impact

ADITEC is one of the biggest collaborative research programs of the European Commission, co-funded with €30M EC budget. Over the duration of the ADITEC project, impact is seen in the areas of innovation, knowledge, European competitiveness, public health and in the structuring of the European Research Area (ERA) in the field of vaccine research. The first three project years are complete and impact is very evident. It is expected that future years will bring also an increased level of impact in all of these areas as the consortium and its research matures.

In the first 3 years of the project, 4 patents have been filed, new immunization technologies have been reported, 4 clinical studies are completed, 5 started and 4 under planning, new animal models have been developed and new immunological signatures have been identified. In the first 3 years of the project the surprising amount of 111 publications have appeared in peer reviewed journals, 70 published during the last project year. ADITEC partners were invited to 40 international conferences, made 208 conference presentations and attended well over 150 conferences. Around 50 fellowhips have been sponsored and the same amount of Post Docs and PhD students have been supported.

Event at Italian Embassy in Brussels

In October, a special high level event was organised at the Italian Embassy in Brussels. The event, organised in the context of the Italian Presidency of the Council, was dedicated to the High Impact Project ADITEC on the occasion of the third Annual Meeting with over 120 delegates in attendance. Ambassador H.E. Mr. Alfredo Bastianelli, warmly welcomed the project members and Dr Ruxandra Draghia-Akli, Director of the Health Directorate at the Research Directorate General of the European Commission.

Master degree for 6 students

ADITEC has sponsored participation of six medical doctors from EDCTP clinical sites to the 18-month 3rd Master Course in Vaccinology and Pharmaceutical Clinical Development at the University of Siena (ADITEC WP 16).
On November 17, 2014 the students have successfully defended their thesis at the University of Siena and were presented with the Master certificate.

In the picture the six students (Vincent Gicuki Kioi from Kenya; Emmanuel Ato Williams from Ghana; Augustin Ndiaye from Senegal; John Mathabathe from South Africa; Elirehema Mfinanga from Tanzania; and Jean-Paul Uwizihiwe from Rwanda) are with Professor Angelo Riccaboni (Dean of the University of Siena), Dr. Rino Rappuoli (ADITEC Project Coordinator), Professor Donata Medaglini (ADITEC Scientific Coordinator), Professor Emanuele Montomoli (President of the Master Scientific and Technical Committee), Dr. Audino Podda (Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health) and Dr. Gianluca Breghi (Sclavo Vaccine Association).

ADITEC Fellowships Awarded for the 3rd Course on Adjuvants and Vaccine Formulation

In our October newsletter we announced that ADITEC is sponsor of the 3rd Course on Adjuvants and Vaccine Formulation which will be held on 9-13 February at the Vaccine Formulation Laboratory at University of Lausanne, Switzerland. We are happy to announce the following fellowships will be supported by ADITEC:

  • Alice Gerlini, Microbiotec, Italy (ADITEC partner)
  • Ivan Pisoni, NVGH, Italy (ADITEC partner)
  • Alice Gutjahr, CRNS, France (ADITEC partner)
  • Małgorzata Kęsik, Institute of Biotechnology and Antibiotics, Poland
  • Hadeel Khallouf, German Cancer Research Center, Germany
  • Grzegorz Chodaczek, Wroclaw Research Centre EIT, Poland

Recent publications

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

Interesting meetings

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

  • 06-08 March 2015, Lisbon, Portugal, 3rd ESCMID Conference on Vaccines – Vaccines for Mutual Protection
  • 17-18 March 2015, Berlin, World Tuberculosis Day symposium in Berlin: Tuberculosis control and prevention
  • 07-09 April 2015, Washington DC, World Vaccine Congress
  • 13-14 April 2015, Bethesda, USA, 2015 Annual Conference on Vaccine Research
  • 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.
%d bloggers like this: