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 which have full access to ADITEC’s dissemination activities, training programs, impact sharing activities and opportunities for commissioned research undertaken by ADITEC members. We are proud to welcome Aeras and Desert King International (DKI) as new affiliated members. DKI will provide QS-21 to the ADITEC project: an adjuvant with a well characterized ability to enhance the immune response for a wide range of vaccine antigens. Toghether with it's combinability with other adjuvants, and its powerful dose-sparing effect, make it an attractive adjuvant for pre-clinical research.Aeras will provide added value to ADITEC through their collective expertise in translational development of vaccine products and regulatory considerations of vaccine platforms and technologies. The manufacturing capabilities within the organization may be of added benefit to the consortium.
                                              
Read how to become an affiliated member

A variety of foremost international leaders in systems biology from Europe and the US, as well as representatives from the NIH and the European Commission, are coming together in October to discuss strengthening the integration of system biology approaches with vaccine research and development in Europe.

Topics of discussion will include:
•        Human Immunology and Vaccinology
•        Host-Pathogen Interaction
•        Bioinformatics and Computation Modeling
•        Building International Synergies in Systems Biology.
Highlights from the meeting will be posted on the ADITEC project website.

In every newsletter one of ADITEC’s research partners will be highlighted. In this edition you will meet the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany.
The Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology (MPIIB) was founded in 1993, and is currently one of the 82 Institutes of the Max Planck Society (MPS). The MPS was established in 1948, and is Germany’s most successful nonprofit, public research organization.  These 82 institutes conduct basic research in the service of the general public in the natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. Institutes of the MPS focus on research fields that are particularly innovative, thus leading to pioneering scientific developments. Read more about the Max Planck Insitute for Infection Biology and its role in the ADITEC project

End of May partners in the ADITEC consortium sent out a call for applications to attend a training in adjuvant and vaccine formulation. This training consists of two courses which will take place in September 2013 at the Vaccine Formulation Laboratory at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
The 5-day theoretical course will focus on the different vaccine adjuvant systems and will give an overview on best practices in formulation of adjuvanted vaccines. In addition, background information on the immune system and process development, characterization, quality control and preclinical development of adjuvanted vaccines will be covered.
The 4-day practical course provides demonstrations and hands-on training of formulation techniques, assays for characterization and quality control of adjuvanted vaccines.
Selected candidates will be announced in August.

The High Impact project on Advanced Immunization Technologies (ADITEC), funded through the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union, aims to accelerate the development of novel and powerful immunization technologies for the next generation of human vaccines. ADITEC constitutes an important cornerstone of an expanded vaccine research partnership, geared to boost European research in the field of immunology and vaccinology. It is within this context that ADITEC launched a call on April 15 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. The call closed on May 30 and the successful proposals will be announced in August.

Since 2009, Dr David Gancberg is Scientific Officer at the European Commission, DG Research and Innovation, Health Research, Unit Advanced therapies and systems medicine, in charge for regenerative medicine, gene therapy and immunotherapy projects. He recently has been allocated the responsibility for the ADITEC project and is contact person from the side of the European Commission.
Previously, he was Scientific Officer at the Joint Research Centre (Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements) of the European Commission in Geel (Belgium). There he was in charge of the development of DNA-based certified reference material used for the genetic testing and was involved in the CRMGEN and EuroGentest European projects. He was also contributing to the production and the certification of GMO-based certified reference materials.
Before he joined the EC he worked for the Jules Bordet Institute (Brussels, Belgium) to assess, develop and refine diagnostic and prognostic markers of tumours in the department of Pathology and Chemotherapy, in particular for breast cancer. Dr Gancberg holds a PhD in immunology  from the Free University of Brussels.

The ADITEC annual meeting will be held from 21-23 October in Brussels. All partners of the project are invited for this meeting - that will be attended by around 100 participants - to present and discuss the results of the second year of research (by invitation only).

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

• Encapsulation of Nod1 and Nod2 receptor ligands into poly(lactic acid) nanoparticles potentiates their immune properties.
  Pavot V, Rochereau N, Primard C, Genin C, Perouzel E, Lioux T, Paul S, Verrier B.
  J Control Release. 2013 Apr 10;167(1):60-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2013.01.015. Epub 2013 Jan 23.
• The "sweet" side of a long pentraxin: how glycosylation affects PTX3 functions in innate immunity and inflammation.
  Inforzato A, Reading PC, Barbati E, Bottazzi B, Garlanda C, Mantovani A.
  Front Immunol. 2012;3:407. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2012.00407. Epub 2013 Jan 7.
• PTX3 as a paradigm for the interaction of pentraxins with the Complement system.
  Inforzato A, Doni A, Barajon I, Leone R, Garlanda C, Bottazzi B, Mantovani A.
  Semin Immunol. 2013 Jun 6. pii: S1044-5323(13)00031-6. doi: 10.1016/j.smim.2013.05.002. [Epub ahead of print]
• The adjuvant effect of MF59 is due to the oil-in-water emulsion formulation, none of the individual components induce a comparable adjuvant effect.
  Calabro S, Tritto E, Pezzotti A, Taccone M, Muzzi A, Bertholet S, De Gregorio E, O'Hagan DT, Baudner B, Seubert A.
  Vaccine. 2013 May 16. pii: S0264-410X(13)00563-X. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2013.05.007. [Epub ahead of print]
• Tuberculosis vaccines: Time to think about the next generation
  Stefan H.E. Kaufmann
  Seminars in immunology, 21 May 2013
• Interactions of the humoral pattern recognition molecule PTX3 with the complement system.
  Doni A, Garlanda C, Bottazzi B, Meri S, Garred P, Mantovani A.
  Immunobiology. 2012 Nov;217(11):1122-8. doi: 10.1016/j.imbio.2012.07.004.
• The long pentraxin PTX3: a paradigm for humoral pattern recognition molecules.
  Mantovani A, Valentino S, Gentile S, Inforzato A, Bottazzi B, Garlanda C.
  Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2013 May;1285(1):1-14. doi: 10.1111/nyas.12043. Epub 2013 Mar 25
• Serum Amyloid P Is a Sialylated Glycoprotein Inhibitor of Influenza A Viruses.
  Job ER, Bottazzi B, Gilbertson B, Edenborough KM, Brown LE, et al. (2013)
  PLoS ONE 8(3): e59623. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0059623
• Enzyme-linked immunospot assays for direct ex vivo measurement of vaccine-induced human humoral immune responses in blood
  Giulietta Saletti, Nicolas Çuburu, Jae Seung Yang, Ayan Dey & Cecil Czerkinsky
  Nature Protocols 8, 1073–1087 (2013) doi:10.1038/nprot.2013.058
• Prime-boost strategies in mucosal immunization affect local IgA production and the type of Th response.
  Fiorino F, Pettini E, Pozzi G, Medaglini D and Ciabattini A (2013).
  Front. Immunol. 4:128. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2013.00128
• Control of Chronic Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection by CD4 KLRG1- IL-2-Secreting Central Memory Cells.
  Lindenstrøm T, Knudsen NP, Agger EM, Andersen P.
  J Immunol. 2013 May 15.
• CD39 is involved in mediating suppression by Mycobacterium bovis BCG-activated human CD8+CD39+ regulatory T cells
  Mardi C. Boer, Krista E. van Meijgaarden, Jérémy Bastid, Tom H.M. Ottenhoff, Simone A. Joosten
  DOI: 10.1002/eji.201243286
• HMGB1 and leukocyte migration during trauma and sterile inflammation.
  Venereau E, Schiraldi M, Uguccioni M, Bianchi ME.
  Mol Immunol. 2013 Aug;55(1):76-82. doi: 10.1016/j.molimm.2012.10.037. Epub 2012 Dec 1.

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

• 15th International Congress of Immunology (ICI 2013) Milan, IT MiCo (Milano Congressi)  August 22-27 2013
• International Conference on Systems Biology (ICSB), 30 Aug - 3 Sept, Copenhagen, Denmark
• Mucosal Vaccines Adjuvants & Delivery - (MUCOVAD 2013), Sept 25-27, 2013, Copenhagen, Denmark
• World Vaccine Congres, Oct 16-17, Lille, France
• Keystone Symposium: Advancing Vaccines in the Genomics Era (T1), 31 Oct - 4 Nov
• Workshop: Human Challenge Trials in Vaccine Development: Scientific and Regulatory Issues, May 1-2 2014, Rockville, Maryland, USA