An Inside-out Approach To Muscosal Vaccination: MAdCAM Targeting
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$174,250.00
Summary
The mucosal surfaces are the entry site for many pathogens (eg. cholera, rotaviruses, helicobacter, SARS and sexually transmitted diseases including HIV infections). The ideal vaccine would elicit both systemic and mucosal immune response, enhancing immunity at this first line of defence. The oral route has formidable barriers to antigen uptake such as digestive enzymes, commensal microbes, mucous layers and gastric acid. Our strategy targets the vascular addressin found in immune tissues of the ....The mucosal surfaces are the entry site for many pathogens (eg. cholera, rotaviruses, helicobacter, SARS and sexually transmitted diseases including HIV infections). The ideal vaccine would elicit both systemic and mucosal immune response, enhancing immunity at this first line of defence. The oral route has formidable barriers to antigen uptake such as digestive enzymes, commensal microbes, mucous layers and gastric acid. Our strategy targets the vascular addressin found in immune tissues of the gut (called MAdCAM) so that the vaccine is linked to an antibody against MAdCAM. Thus for the first time we believe that a parenteral vaccine ie. injected im or iv (bypassing the oral barriers) can induce mucosal immunity.Read moreRead less
Maternal And Neonatal Vaccination - How Early Can We Protect Infants?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$196,331.00
Summary
Currently, only hepatitis B vaccine is routinely given at birth and for all other vaccines the earliest recommended administration is at 6 weeks old. This is too late to protect infants against pertussis and the most severe cases (hospitalisation or death) occur before 4 months. This research aims to assess if birth pertussis vaccination can protect infants earlier, measure the longevity of immunity following birth hepatitis B vaccination and examine the potential role for maternal vaccination
The Centre will enhance Australian clinical immunisation research and training, focussing upon clinical questions with translatable outcomes not easily addressed by industry. Optimal immunisation and interventions to maximise uptake of existing and new vaccines in high risk patient groups, such as children with cancer, immigrants, children with chronic diseases and adolescents will be studied. New vaccine trials, innovative use of existing vaccines, systematic collection of vaccine failure data, ....The Centre will enhance Australian clinical immunisation research and training, focussing upon clinical questions with translatable outcomes not easily addressed by industry. Optimal immunisation and interventions to maximise uptake of existing and new vaccines in high risk patient groups, such as children with cancer, immigrants, children with chronic diseases and adolescents will be studied. New vaccine trials, innovative use of existing vaccines, systematic collection of vaccine failure data, and targeted epidemiology and disease modelling vaccine preventable disease will also allow a broad program of research, enabling training and mentoring of young clinical nurse and physician researchers. Collaborations with existing national immunisation, infectious diseases and research institutions will allow maximal effectiveness of clinical studies.Read moreRead less
Preventing And Treating Significant Infections In The Community And In Hospitals
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$328,990.00
Summary
Infections that require hospitalisation are common and a significant event for patients. This research will look at severe influenza and define how protective the influenza vaccination is against hospitalisation. It will also look at preventing healthcare associated infections and in particular those involving antibiotic resistant "superbugs".
A New Scrambled Antigen Vaccine (SAVINE) Approach: Proof-of-concept In Non-human Primates For HIV-1
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$120,700.00
Summary
The specific aim of this proposal is to demonstrate, in non-human primates, proof–of-concept of a patented new platform vaccine technology (scrambled antigen vaccine or SAVINE) designed to encode all the protein sequences of an infectious agent, in this case HIV-1. These are arranged as equal-sized, overlapping fragments such that all potential T cell epitopes that are needed to induce broad T-cell-mediated immunity are maintained. The synthetically designed vaccine uses consensus sequences of H ....The specific aim of this proposal is to demonstrate, in non-human primates, proof–of-concept of a patented new platform vaccine technology (scrambled antigen vaccine or SAVINE) designed to encode all the protein sequences of an infectious agent, in this case HIV-1. These are arranged as equal-sized, overlapping fragments such that all potential T cell epitopes that are needed to induce broad T-cell-mediated immunity are maintained. The synthetically designed vaccine uses consensus sequences of HIV-1 to provide universal coverage of the major HIV-1 strains for a global population. The synthetic systematically designed HIV-1 vaccine will be delivered using our newly developed prime-boost immunisation regime that induces particularly high levels of cell-mediated immunity.Read moreRead less