Fri 15 Nov 13:00: Gene-based vaccines to combat bacterial diseases, hurdles and opportunities’ Canceled - to be re-scheduled
With the recent success of adenoviral vaccines against Ebola and SARS -CoV-2, the potential of this platform in the fight against outbreak pathogens is being realised. This technology has proven impact in high income countries and is also suitable for large scale manufacture and use in low-and-middle income countries, as demonstrated by the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine against SARS -CoV-2. The potential of viral-vectors to induce T Helper type 1 and high antibody responses in humans makes the use of this approach attractive in efforts to combat the disease and disability caused by bacterial pathogens. However, the case for their use in bacterial vaccines is less clear: the expression of a bacterial protein in a eukaryotic cell may impact on the antigen localization, induce unwanted glycosylation or affect protein conformation, and this is also true if using the mRNA vaccine platform. The potential and challenges of adenoviral vectors was explored against two bacterial diseases, capsular group B meningococcus and the plague. While all antigens and combinations were able to induce high antibody responses after a single dose immunisation in mice, not all were able to induce functional antibodies. We show that a subset of outer membrane proteins from Gram-negative bacteria can be incorporated into gene-based vectors for novel vaccine development. While our work highlights the challenges inherent in developing novel vaccines using this technology and can be applied to mRNA, the successful progression of two novel bacterial vaccines to clinical development underlines the potential of these platforms for vaccine development against bacterial diseases.
Canceled - to be re-scheduled
- Speaker: Professor Christine Rollier, Professor of Vaccinology, University of Surrey
- Friday 15 November 2024, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: LT2.
- Series: Departmental Seminar Programme, Department of Veterinary Medicine; organiser: Fiona Roby.
Wed 22 Nov 16:00: Predicting in vivo metabolic vulnerabilities in Streptococcus suis using metabolic models
Streptococcus suis is an important zoonotic pathogen causing severe systemic infections in pigs as well as humans. Recent genomic evidence from large clinical isolate collections suggests that metabolism plays a key role in S. suis pathogenicity. To explore the relationship between genomic variability, metabolism, and pathogenicity in S. suis in more detail, we developed the first large-scale ensemble of strain-specific S. suis genome-scale metabolic models. In my talk, I will discuss how these models can be used to identify new metabolic vulnerabilities that are conserved across clinical isolates and relevant in vivo, thus paving the way for new treatment strategies which directly target S. suis metabolism.
Dr. Karl Kochanowski is a Ramón y Cajal researcher at IRTA -CReSA in Barcelona (Spain). His research focuses on understanding the principles of cellular metabolic regulation, and their impact on disease outcomes. During his PhD research at ETH Zurich (Switzerland), he explored the role of protein-metabolite interactions in coordinating metabolic pathway activity in Escherichia coli. During his postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco (USA), he investigated how changes in nutrient availability affect cancer cell behavior. At IRTA -CReSA, he and his team use a variety of experimental and computational systems biology approaches (e.g. high-throughput cultivation, metabolomics, and genome-scale metabolic models) to understand how cellular metabolism drives animal infections.
- Speaker: Karl Kochanowski
- Wednesday 22 November 2023, 16:00-17:00
- Venue: by zoom.
- Series: Departmental Seminar Programme, Department of Veterinary Medicine; organiser: Fiona Roby.
Fri 22 Sep 12:00: Clec9A-targeting as a pathogen agnostic vaccine platform for pandemic vaccine response
Chaired by Professor Jonathan Heeney
- Speaker: Dr Sylvie Alonso, Associate Professor, Infectious Diseases Translational Research Programme (ID TRP)
- Friday 22 September 2023, 12:00-14:00
- Venue: LT1.
- Series: Departmental Seminar Programme, Department of Veterinary Medicine; organiser: Fiona Roby.
Tue 03 Oct 13:00: Dissecting coronavirus-host interactions in bats and white-tailed deer
Wildlife infection with SARS -CoV-2 remains mysterious and poorly studied. In this talk, Drs. Mubareka and Banerjee will discuss coronavirus-host interactions during infection in two wildlife species – white-tailed deer and bats. We will discuss how these animals mount an antiviral response that is distinct from their human counterpart. We hope to generate a wider discussion around virus infections in wildlife and One Health measures that can help us identify and characterize emerging zoonotic viruses.
- Speaker: Arinjay Banerjee and Samira Mubareka, Laboratory of Zoonotic Viruses and Comparative Immunology (LZCI) Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) University of Saskatchewan
- Tuesday 03 October 2023, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: LT1.
- Series: Departmental Seminar Programme, Department of Veterinary Medicine; organiser: Fiona Roby.
Tue 03 Oct 13:00: Dissecting coronavirus-host interactions in bats and white-tailed deer
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Arinjay Banerjee and Samira Mubareka, Laboratory of Zoonotic Viruses and Comparative Immunology (LZCI) Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) University of Saskatchewan
- Tuesday 03 October 2023, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: LT1.
- Series: Departmental Seminar Programme, Department of Veterinary Medicine; organiser: Fiona Roby.
Wed 13 Sep 10:30: Nationwide HLA frequency and Network based viral host prediction.
Combining HLA frequency studies to investigate global immunogenetics and improve vaccine design. A new technique to predict new virus host and potential zoonotic events.
Chaired by Professor Jonathan Heeney
- Speaker: Dr David Wells, Senior Bioinformatics Scientist, Vaccitech Ltd, Oxford
- Wednesday 13 September 2023, 10:30-11:30
- Venue: LT2.
- Series: Departmental Seminar Programme, Department of Veterinary Medicine; organiser: Fiona Roby.
Tue 03 Oct 13:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Arinjay Banerjee, Laboratory of Zoonotic Viruses and Comparative Immunology (LZCI) Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) University of Saskatchewan
- Tuesday 03 October 2023, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: LT1.
- Series: Departmental Seminar Programme, Department of Veterinary Medicine; organiser: Fiona Roby.
Wed 13 Sep 10:30: Nationwide HLA frequency and Network based viral host prediction.
Chaired by Professor Jonathan Heeney
- Speaker: Dr David Wells, Senior Bioinformatics Scientist, Vaccitech Ltd, Oxford
- Wednesday 13 September 2023, 10:30-11:30
- Venue: LT2.
- Series: Departmental Seminar Programme, Department of Veterinary Medicine; organiser: Fiona Roby.