This project aims to develop new platform technologies for vaccine delivery suitable for general use in many infectious disease situations. Vaccinology is an important area for the generation of intellectual property and national wealth and this research programme intends to stimulate interest in and develop a skill base in vaccinology in this country. Technologies will be based on entirely home-grown vector and delivery systems such as those based on Newcastle Disease Virus vectors and fusion cassettes, as well as local re-engineering and reverse engineering of delivery systems already under development. We intend to gain the technologies and skills in designing and developing both live vectored systems in bacteria, DNA vaccine approaches or subunit vaccine approaches. Each of these have different characteristics and may be suitable for different applications. It is our aim to use the enterovirus EV71 as a model virus for the design and testing of these vector systems in order to finetune and understand the limits and advantages of each of these in vivo. The mouse model for EV71 being developed in a related project will be used to test these new technologies as they are developed.

 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Project Title:
DEVELOPMENT OF VACCINE DELIVERY PLATFORMS
FOR TROPICAL INFECTIOUS DISEASES

 

Each type of delivery system successfully developed will have intellectual property protection and will then be used as the basis for vaccines for a variety of infectious and other diseases of importance to Malaysia and the region. The development of these technologies will allow Malaysia to be a player in the biotechnology industry and we shall be able to provide both human resources as well as new technologies for vaccines for both biomedical and agro-industry applications.

Progress/Achievements for 2002

-

Project Status

- On-going