Research project
Development of vaccine platforms
- Start date: 1 September 2023
- End date: 29 February 2028
- Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
- Partners and collaborators: Vax Hub Network
- Primary investigator: Professor Nicola Stonehouse
- Co-investigators: Professor David Rowlands
- Postgraduate students: Khalid Alluhaybi
Project title
Development of vaccine platforms
Description
Research overview
We have developed a vaccine platform system that allows a presentation scaffold and a glycoprotein antigen to be made separately and then combined in vitro. The scaffold is a virus-like particle (VLP) composed of fused dimers of hepatitis B core protein (HBc) that display a novel, high affinity binding sequence (an affimer to SUMO). This allows the attachment of SUMO-tagged proteins onto preformed VLPs without the need for co-expression.
This is part of a consortium with University College London, University of Leeds, University of Oxford, University of Cardiff and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Key findings
The structure of these VLPs is currently at 2.8 Å resolution by cryo-EM.
We have used our novel scaffold system to capture the glyocoprotein ectodomains of Junín virus and SARS-CoV-2.