Objective
Vaccines are the most effective way to protect humans from infectious disease and may save over 2 million lives per year (Delany, 2013). A key issue for future vaccines is how to improve immunogenicity without reducing safety (Bachmann, 2010). Another challenge is that high antigen sequence variability enables pathogens to escape the host response. To overcome these challenges, this proposal combines Structural Vaccinology and bionanoparticle (BNP) design, to generate novel self-assembling BNPs with multi-copy antigen display for the development of safe vaccine antigens with enhanced immunogenicity and breadth of coverage.
We will generate antigen-BNPs for a 2nd generation vaccine against Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B (MenB), a major cause of sepsis and invasive disease (Pace, 2012). This research may also potentiate antigen-BNP technology suitable for other vaccines. Firstly, we will use functional (bactericidal) monoclonal antibodies to map the most protective epitopes on the 3D structures of two key MenB antigens, fHbp and NadA, which contribute strongly to our recently-approved 1st generation MenB vaccine, Bexsero (O’Ryan, 2014). To aid this, we have developed wide expertise in structure-focused epitope mapping (Malito, 2013). Secondly, we will design optimized antigens stably displaying the best epitopes, an approach that we have pioneered and termed ‘Structural Vaccinology’ (Scarselli, 2011). Finally, self-assembling protein bionanoparticles displaying ordered arrays of the optimized antigens will be prepared, in order to generate novel highly-immunogenic, broadly-protective MenB vaccine candidates.
The proposal offers an exciting career development opportunity encompassing novel high-quality research to combine and deliver the promises of Structural Vaccinology and nanobiology, with a high probability of success to generate innovative new vaccine antigens for products to protect humans against meningococcal and other infectious diseases.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- engineering and technology materials engineering crystals
- medical and health sciences basic medicine immunology immunisation
- medical and health sciences health sciences infectious diseases
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy drug resistance
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy pharmaceutical drugs vaccines
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF-EF-RI - RI – Reintegration panel
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2014
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
53100 Siena
Italy
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.