Live Attenuated Salmonella for Vaccine Development
Colour-enhanced scanning electron micrograph showing Salmonella typhimurium (red) invading cultured human cells. Copyright: Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH
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LICENSING / COLLABORATIVE R&D OPPORTUNITY
Scientists in the University of Edinburgh's School of Biological Sciences have developed a series of Salmonella deletion mutants which provide protective immunity in an in vivo model of Salmonella infection.
These unique strains have been generated by deleting a series of genes critical for the bacterial to grow under a number of stress conditions. As a result, the strains are highly attenuated in vivo, but are capable of eliciting a strong protective immune response in a murine salmonella infection model.
The deletion mutants show restricted growth at low temperatures, thereby reducing the risk of transmission when released in the environment or during carcass storage. This makes them safer for human handlers and for those in the food production industry who come into contact with a vaccinated host or their waste.Key Benefits
- Novel attenuation approach based on genes involved in post-transcriptional regulation, required for bacterial adaptation to a number of stresses
- Strongly immunogenic, but avirulent in a murine model
- Strategy that can stand-alone or be combined with other existing attenuating lesions to increase immunogenicity and extend safety profile
- Attenuated strains can be used as a vaccine vector for delivering and fine tuning immune responses against other heterologous antigens
- Deleted genes are widely distributed in bacteria so strategy is potentially applicable to other pathogenic bacterial species
Applications
- Veterinary Market - reducing the prevalence of salmonella infection in poultry, swine and cattle through vaccination is an effective and economic way to control infection rates in the food chain
- Travel Vaccine Market - people travelling to developing countries are recommended to consider receiving a typhoid vaccination, with travellers to Asia, Africa and Latin America deemed to be especially 'at risk'. Military personnel deployed in these areas are also at risk of infection
IP Status
The University of Edinburgh is looking for commercial partners to undertake further collaborative development work and/or licensing of rights to use the methods and reagents for further research into their potential applications in veterinary bacterial vaccines.
If you would like further information about
this opportunity please fill out the form below. Your enquiry will
be passed on to the relevant University who will respond to you directly.
