Research on vaccines against potential future pandemics receives giant grant
Horizon Europe awards DKK 60 million to researchers, including those from SUND, who will develop vaccines for potential future pandemics, building on their COVID-19 vaccine expertise.
During the Corona pandemic, researchers from the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences (SUND) were involved in developing a special type of vaccine against COVID-19, called the capsid virus-like particle (cVLP) vaccine.
Now, these researchers, forming a new consortium (VICI-Disease), have just received a substantial grant of over DKK 60 million from the European Commission's Horizon Europe program to continue their groundbreaking work on vaccines.
One of the researchers is Professor Adam F. Sander Bertelsen from the Centre for Translational Medicine and Parasitology (CMP) at SUND.
"The fundamental vaccine technology has now been validated in phase-3 trials, where it has proven to be both safe and highly effective. Particularly, the technology has demonstrated the ability to induce strong and long-lasting antibody responses without the use of adjuvants. Based on this, we will now apply the technology to develop effective and durable vaccines against known viruses that have the potential to cause a new pandemic," says Adam F. Sander Bertelsen.
In addition to researchers from the University of Copenhagen, the VICI-Disease consortium includes university hospitals, research centers, and public authorities from around the world.
These include Radboud University Medical Center, Centre de Recherches Médicales de Lambaréné, PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, and the United States National Institute of Health. Private companies such as AdaptVac and ExpreS2ion Biotechnologies are also part of the consortium.
Out of the DKK 60 million, the researchers at SUND will receive just over five million kroner. The rest will be distributed among the other actors in the consortium.
They aim to develop a vaccine against three specific viruses
The VICI-Disease consortium receives the EU grant to develop vaccines against three viruses called Nipah, Marburg, and Sudan, as well as to conduct clinical tests of the Nipah virus vaccine within four years.
"VICI-Disease is an ambitious project that combines existing state-of-the-art expertise with new advances in the field of vaccines. The main goal is to develop a range of vaccine candidates and conduct a clinical proof-of-concept study to have vaccines ready for further clinical validation in large efficacy trials in the event of pandemic outbreaks," says Adam F. Sander Bertelsen.
The primary focus of the project is the Nipah virus, as it causes severe illness with a high risk of death, and currently, there are no available vaccines or treatments.
The consortium members are world-leading experts in their respective fields, covering all relevant areas of research with high biosafety levels and vaccine development, necessary for the rapid clinical development of Nipah, Marburg, and Sudan virus vaccines.
Contact
Professor Adam F. Sander Bertelsen
asander@sund.ku.dk