I-Corps: Rapid Generation and Testing of Vaccine Candidates using Protein Nanoparticles

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力源于它有可能加速新疫苗和免疫疗法的发现和制造过程。这些产品包含几种不同的成分，它们共同作用，引导针对特定病原体或疾病的免疫反应。这里开发的技术使这些组件的组装成为一个快速和模块化的过程，从一个自然地提醒免疫系统存在感染的分子特征的平台开始。通过加快疫苗和免疫治疗候选者的建设，我们将使整体发现过程更快、更有效，生产过程更快、更便宜。通过缩短发现和制造时间，整个制药业可以对新出现的威胁做出更好的反应。这项技术还可以潜在地应用于癌症和其他疾病的免疫治疗。这个I-Corps项目结合了两个核心能力：开发来自病毒的蛋白质纳米颗粒，作为刺激免疫系统向附着在它们上面的分子的平台，以及高效的化学反应，使附着在蛋白质纳米颗粒上变得容易和可扩展。由于定义不同感染源或疾病状态的分子可能差异很大，因此这种有效的连接反应对于使候选疫苗的构建成为常规和模块化是必要的。研究已经确定了所需的方法和联系，并验证了某些蛋白质纳米颗粒作为有效免疫刺激剂的使用。某些细菌和寄生虫感染的概念已经得到证明，其特征是在感染生物的表面显示出独特的糖样分子。该方法的灵活性(可能适用于多种疾病)与快速大规模生产有前途的纳米制剂的能力相结合，使该技术具有从学术实验室过渡到潜在商业临床应用的吸引力。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project derives from its ability to potentially accelerate the process of discovery and manufacture of new vaccines and immunological therapies. These products contain several different components that act together to direct the immune response against a particular pathogen or disease. The technology developed here makes the assembly of these components a rapid and modular process, starting from a platform that naturally alerts the immune system to the presence of a molecular signature of infection. By speeding the construction of vaccine and immunotherapeutic candidates, we will make the overall discovery process faster and more effective, and the production process faster and less expensive. By shortening the time of discovery and manufacture, the pharmaceutical industry as a whole can be more responsive to emerging threats. The technology can also be potentially applied to immunotherapy against cancer and other diseases.This I-Corps project combines two core capabilities: the development of protein nanoparticles derived from viruses as platforms that stimulate the immune system toward molecules attached to them, and highly efficient chemical reactions that make attachments to the protein nanoparticles easy and scalable. Since the molecules that define different infectious agents or disease states can vary widely, such efficient connecting reactions are necessary to make the construction of vaccine candidates routine and modular. Research has defined the methods and linkages needed, and has validated the use of certain protein nanoparticles as effective immune-stimulating agents. Proofs of concept have been achieved for certain bacterial and parasitic infections, characterized by the display of unique sugar-like molecules on the surfaces of the infectious organisms. The combination of the flexibility of the approach, potentially applicable against a wide variety of diseases, and the ability to rapidly produce promising nanoparticle agents quickly and on large scale, makes the technology attractive for transition from the academic laboratory to potential commercial clinical application.