The high impact project Advanced Immunization Technologies (ADITEC) started as an ambitious €30 million EU project to boost vaccine research. During the 5 year term of the project, the goal is to develop novel immunization technologies for the next generation of human vaccines. Already in the first year, a lot has been achieved in developing immunization technologies, animal models and human immunology. Read more on our website

ADITEC aims to optimize the impact of research by offering specific expertise and capacities of its partners in support of commissioned research projects. Projects will be selected through an open call process which will be designed to serve two groups of players considered to be crucial for translation of research results:

• European vaccine SMEs, driving innovation for vaccine development;
• European public health or regulatory bodies, deciding to take on vaccines/regimen/devices.

Partners of the ADITEC consortium will soon present a module of two courses in adjuvants and vaccine formulation. The two courses will take place in September 2013 at the Vaccine Formulation Laboratory at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

The theoretical course: "Adjuvants and Vaccine formulation" will run from 9-13 September 2013. This 5-day course will focus on the different vaccine adjuvant systems (including aluminium salts, water-in-oil emulsions, oil-in-water emulsions, TLR agonists, saponins, liposomes) 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 course will be open for up to 12 participants.

The practical course: "Adjuvants and Vaccine formulation" will be held from 16-20 September 2013. This 5-day course provides practical demonstrations and hands-on training of formulation techniques, assays for characterization and quality control of adjuvanted vaccines. The course will be open for a maximum of 6 participants. Only candidates that have participated in course number 1 are eligible to participate in course number 2.

These courses are open for both members of the ADITEC project, and for non-members. Participants' course registration fees will be covered by the ADITEC project. Candidates must be working in the EU or associated member states or working in an adjuvant-related project funded by the European Commission or EDCTP. They should have a BSc or MSc, or have demonstrable vaccine-related research experience. Applications can be submitted as of 1 May 2013. More information on the application procedure will follow on the ADITEC website as of April 2013. Contact Dr Maria Lawrenz from the University of Lausanne for more information

ADITEC is one of the biggest collaborative research programs of the European Commission, co-funded with €30M EC budget. In just the first year of the project, a surprising impact has been made in achieving their goals in the development of novel and powerful immunization technologies.Among the successes to date, 1 patent has been filed, new adjuvants and new vectors have been identified, 2 new animal models have been developed and preclinical studies are actively underway Four clinical studies were initiated and 5 studies are in the protocol development phase. Mathematical models are currently being developed, 19 publications have been written, 2 courses developed and 3 Memoranda of Understanding have been signed! Read the details in our impact report

In every newsletter one of ADITEC’s research partners will be highlighted. In this edition you will meet the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France.
Since its creation in 1887, the Institut Pasteur has become famous throughout the world as a symbol of science and French culture. For 120 years, the foundation has been contributing to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases through research, teaching and public health initiatives.  Read more about Institut Pasteur and its role in the ADITEC project

ADITEC is very proud to announce that Dr. Rino Rappuoli, project coordinator of the ADITEC project, is ranked number 3 in the recently published Top 50 vaccine influencers. This list was published by Terrapinn based on a questioning among their network. But there are more ADITEC involved influentials on the list:George Siber (27), David Salisbury (16) and Gary Nabel (11) members of our external advisory board and Steven Reed (13), partner in our project and member of our Steering Committee.

In our October newsletter we announced that ADITEC is sponsor of the world renowned vaccinology training programme ADVAC. Organized by ADITEC's partner University of Geneva, together with Insitut Mérieux, ADVAC is a 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, ethical issues related to vaccine trials, financing of immunization policy, communication.
We are happy to announce the following 2013 fellowships will be supported by ADITEC:

• Thomas Darton, University of Oxford, UK
• Simona Rondini, NVGH, Siena, Italy
• Christine Benn, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark
• Birgit Weinberger, University of Innsbruck, Austria
• Dessi Marinova, University of Zaragoza, Spain
• Isabelle Magalhaes, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
• Anna Morena Dalise, Okairos, Naples, Italy
• Grace Kaguthi, KEMRI, Kisumu, Kenya
• Benjamin Kagina, SATVI, Cape Town, South Africa
• Aurore Hounkpatin, Medical Research Unit, Lambarene, Gabon.

In our October newsletter we announced that ADITEC is sponsor of the Master in Vaccinology and Pharmaceutical Clinical Development. This master will be organized by Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health (NVGH), together with University of Siena and Novartis Vaccines Academy. 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, EMA, Sabin Institute, Gates Foundation) and Industry. We are happy to announce the following 2013 fellowships will be supported by ADITEC:

• Emmanuel Ato Williams (Ghana)
• Mohlamme John Mathabathe (South Africa)
• Jean Paul Uwizihiwe (Rwanda)
• Heriel Mfinanga Elirehema (Tanzania)
• Ndiaye Augustin (Senegal)
• Vincent Muturi Kioi (Kenya)

The ADITEC partners CEA and Institut Pasteur announced that they joined forces with the “Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale” (INSERM), the “Agence Nationale de Recherche sur le SIDA et les Hépatites Virales” (ANRS), Université Paris Sud 11 (UPS-11) and Bertin Pharma to create a research centre for “Infectious Disease Models and Innovative Therapies” (IDMIT) at the CEA site in Fontenay-aux-Roses. This centre will be dedicated to preclinical research programs on human vaccines and antimicrobial treatments. It will be hosted by the Institute of Emerging Diseases and Innovative Therapies (iMETI), one of the eight nationwide institutes of the Life Sciences Division of the CEA.
On 25 May the new research centre organises the IDMIT Kick off symposium: “Animal models for infectious diseases : state of the art and challenges”, CEA, Fontenay-aux Roses, France. Read more on the IDMIT website

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

• Mutually exclusive redox forms of HMGB1 promote cell recruitment or proinflammatory cytokine release.
  Venereau E, Casalgrandi M, Schiraldi M, Antoine DJ, Cattaneo A, De Marchis F, Liu J, Antonelli A, Preti A, Raeli L, Shams SS, Yang H, Varani L, Andersson U, Tracey KJ, Bachi A, Uguccioni M, Bianchi ME.
  Source
  J Exp Med. 2012 Aug 27;209(9):1519-28. doi: 10.1084/jem.20120189. Epub 2012 Aug 6.
• Recombinant live vaccine candidates against tuberculosis.
  Kaufmann SH, Gengenbacher M.
  Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2012 Apr 4. [Epub ahead of print]
• Common patterns and disease-related signatures in tuberculosis and sarcoidosis
  Jeroen Maertzdorf, January Weiner, Hans-Joachim Mollenkopf,TBornotTB Network, Torsten Bauer, Antje Prasse, Joachim Müller-Quernheim, and Stefan H. E. Kaufmann
  Published online before print April 30, 2012, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1121072109 PNAS April 30, 2012
• A structurally informed autotransporter platform for efficient heterologous protein secretion and display.
  Jong WS, Soprova Z, de Punder K, Ten Hagen-Jongman CM, Wagner S, Wickström D, de Gier JW, Andersen P, van der Wel NN, Luirink J.
  Microb Cell Fact. 2012 Jun 18;11(1):85. [Epub ahead of print]

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

• BIT's 5th annual world congress of vaccine 2013, 18-20 March 2013, Hangzhou, China
• Third annual vaccines congress, 25-26 March 2013, London, UK
• Third Global Forum on TB Vaccines, 25-27 March 2013, Cape Town, South Africa (co-organised by ADITEC's partner TBVI)
• World vaccine congress and expo, 16-18 April, Washington, USA
• Ninth Elsinore meeting on infection immunology, 29-31 May 2013, Elsinore, Denmark (co-organized by ADITEC's partner SSI)
• 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