Project description
Synthetic adjuvants for vaccine development
Most vaccines contain adjuvants, ingredients that help strengthen the elicited immune responses. Many compounds have been employed as adjuvants, which either activate antigen-presenting cells or preserve the conformation of antigens to be presented. The ERC-funded ADJUVACCINE project has developed a platform for the synthesis of adjuvant lead compounds based on the naturally occurring saponins encountered in plants. Saponins exhibit emulsifying and foaming properties and have recently been approved as vaccine adjuvants. The ADJUVACCINE synthetic production of saponin adjuvants is scalable, reduces the cost of vaccine production, and can be incorporated into the production pipeline.
Objective
ADJUVACCINE seeks to leverage a breakthrough made in the ERC-2016-STG-716878 project to validate a synthetic technological platform for the scalable production of identified optimised saponin adjuvants for improved cost-effective vaccines. We have developed in the laboratory potent, safe, stable, and streamlined adjuvant leads that surpass the QS-21 natural product adjuvant, leading to patent applications and the interest of Pharma. In this PoC project, we aim to exploit our synthetic saponin technology to produce adjuvant/vaccine candidates at scale that outperform existing products more cost-effectively, lowering the risk profile of the commercialisation potential, while also achieving valorisation outcomes for market entry. The goal is to demonstrate the scalability of our innovative adjuvant technology and select an optimal adjuvant candidate in advanced preclinical settings for entering the vaccine market via spin-off formation following proper IPR strategy implementation and attraction of key investors/partners.
The breakthrough innovation potential of ADJUVACCINE lies in the exploitation of this adjuvant platform for large-scale production and selection of the best candidate lead for application in vaccines against various diseases, improving the available vaccine solutions. The high purity and excellent chemical control of our synthetic technology versus the heterogeneous natural product adjuvants, as well as its streamlined, scalable nature and low-cost profile are unique attributes of our platform that will be valorised herein, making it a potentially superior alternative to existing vaccine models with less structural definition and costlier timelines. The main objectives are 1) demonstrate our synthetic technology platform for the gram-scale production and selection of a candidate adjuvant lead; and 2) implement valorisation opportunities and verify the potential of spin-off creation by establishing an optimal IPR and public/private funding roadmap plan.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept GrantsHost institution
48160 DERIO VIZCAYA
Spain