The World Health Organization (WHO) has established advanced training courses on vaccine adjuvants and formulation, taking place at the Vaccine Formulation Laboratory (VFL) at University of Lausanne (UNIL), Switzerland (a WHO Collaborating Centre in Immunology and Adjuvants). Following completion of the first two courses in September 2013, this was the 3rd course sponsored by the European Commission through the ADITEC project. Overall, eight participants attended the five-day practical course from 9-13 February 2015 at the VFL laboratories. All participants were selected through a competitive process. Six of them, working within the EU, were funded by ADITEC, whereas two additional participants from outside of Europe (Sudan and Indonesia) were supported by WHO.
Course agenda
The 3rd course on Adjuvants and Vaccine Formulation combined theoretical lectures with practical hands-on training. Over the period of the course participants got an overview of vaccine adjuvants and state-of-the-art assays used for characterization and quality control of adjuvanted vaccines. During the lab-based sessions participants worked in small groups of four students under the supervision of formulation experts. Trainees learned how to prepare liposomes, aluminium salts, water-in-oil emulsions, and oil-in-water emulsions, and how to formulate and characterize these adjuvants with vaccine antigens. Finally, trainees learned how to analyze and interpret the data obtained during the training.
Speakers and Trainers
- Dr Christophe Barnier-Quer, Dr Livia Brunner, Dr Patrice Dubois, Dr Nicolas Collin (Vaccine Formulation Laboratory, University of Lausanne, Switzerland), and Corinne Nawrocki (Seppic, France).
Feedback from the participants:
“It was one of the best courses I ever attended”
“The balance between practical and theoretical courses is really perfect”
“I had the opportunity to significantly improve my knowledge in the field of adjuvants”
“It was really great to learn about all those different kinds of adjuvants from theory to formulation to QC tests”
“It has been very interesting to have the possibility to interact with trainers and all the other students in order to exchange our experiences and improve our knowledge”
Outlook: 4th WHO Training Course on Adjuvants and Vaccine Formulation
The next course will be conducted at the VFL from 15 – 19 June 2015. This fully theoretical course will provide detailed information on various adjuvant systems. Additional topics will include: process development, characterization, preclinical development, clinical development and regulatory aspects of adjuvanted vaccines.