2016 started with the second annual UK Veterinary Vaccinology Network Conference, hosted at the Manchester Conference Centre on 5-6 January 2016. The meeting was structured around four themes:
- Transcriptomics and the global immune response
- Novel Vaccines
- Funders, collaborators and priorities in animal health research
- Working effectively with industry
The meeting was attended by over 100 delegates from a wide variety of backgrounds including academia/research institutes, veterinary pharma/private sector and funding bodies. The invited speakers also represented these backgrounds and gave expert and diverse perspectives on the successes and future challenges of both veterinary and human vaccinology.
The two-day conference commenced with Professor Oriol Sunyer from The University of Pennsylvania discussing recent advances in fish mucosal immunity: Implications for the development of effective fish vaccines. He outlined that vaccination by hand is still the most effective route of administration but there are also automated vaccines as well as oral routes. Oriol highlighted key bottlenecks in fish vaccine sector:
Further the development of immune tools to better understand immune response of fish:
- Understand how mucosal immune responses are generated in response to infection, or vaccination, or treatment with immunostimulants
- Use the knowledge on immune responses to rationally design of new adjuvants/immunostimulants - vaccines that will stimulate mucosal IgT and Th1 Immune responses
- Implement immune monitoring in fish farms for a variety of settings, including the analysis of the basal (normal) fish health status and post-vaccine monitoring.
Professor Helen McShane from The University of Oxford discussed aerosol vaccination for Tb in humans and research on the Modified vaccinia Ankara MVA85A vaccine. Future steps will include safety and immunogenicity of aerosol MVA85A in latent TB infection as well as aerosol studies in South Africa, and aerosol studies with BCG.
Professor Johnjoe McFadden from the University of Surrey spoke on Systems approach to new vaccines and diagnostics for bovine TB highlighting the need for vaccine development to consider big data: Genome sequencing, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolics before discussing bovine tuberculosis and the issues surround the BCG vaccine. BCG has previously been shown to be effective in protecting cattle against the diseases yet it is unable to be used as it interferes with skin-test currently used to detect infection. Therefore, vaccinated animals cannot be distinguished between unvaccinated. Current research is developing a recombinant BCG vaccine and complementary diagnostics for TB control in cattle to aid in trying to tackle this problem.
Professor Brendan Wren from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine discussed his research on Glycoengineering Technology for vaccine development. by descriving N-linked glycosylation system in bacteria and the development of Protein Glycan Coupling Technology.
Dr Damer Blake from The Royal Veterinary College highlighted his research on Eimeria which has a global cost of > £2.5 billion/year and is a disease seen in Chickens hence new vaccines are needed but more information is needed on the genetic, antigen diversity of these parasites.
How to experimentally induce an HCV Specific T cell response using adenoviral vectors was discussed in Professor Paul Klenerman’s (University of Oxford) presentation on T cell memory and adenoviral vaccines. Adenoviral vectors are highly potent in priming antigen specific T cell responses. Conclusions highlighted that there needs to be further understanding as to where antigen presentation is occuring, on what cell and at what time point.
Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic fever virus causes severe human infection and has established reservoirs in ticks and wildlife animals, amplified in cattle, sheep, goat and camel. No disease is identified in these animals. Transmission occurs through ticket bite or direct/indirect contact with infected blood and body fluids. Dr Miles Carroll (Public Health England) discussed research into the development of novel vaccine candidates favouring the Modified Vaccinia Ankara as a viral vector to induce immune responses against CCHF antigens notably the Nucleoprotein and Glycoprotein antigens. This mechanism of action relies on both T cell and antibody. The next steps include NHP pre-clinical data package, assess cross neutralisation of CCHFv strains and assess prime boost strategies. These vaccines would be targeted to Healthcare workers in endemic countries, at risk occupations and at risk local populations in endemic countries.
Day 2 of the conference focused on funders, collaborations and priorities in animal health research as well as working effectively with industry and OneHealth
The second day opened with Professor Jackie Hunter, CEO of the Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council (BBSRC). Jackie discussed open innovation highlighting the innovative medicines initiative and calling for a similar framework for UK veterinary vaccinology. As she noted ‘Collaborative best practice: increase s change of successes. There are already many onogoing public-private initiatives in relevant areas of animal health notably STAR-IDAZ, UK Veterinary Vaccinology Network, PROHEALTH, SAPHIR and PARAGONE.
The programme was suitably followed by updates from two European Union H2020 projects: SAPHIR and PARAGONE.
SAPHIR: Strengthening Animal Production and Health through the Immune Response is headed by Isavelle Schwartz –Cornil and Marie-Helene Pinard-van der Laan at INRA. The consortium is made up of 14 institutes , 5 SME, 1 forum, 1 tech-transfer and 1 big pharma across 12 countries and aims to tackle its goal through a multidisciplinary approach focusing on vaccine design as well as socio-economic context analysis of infectious diseases and control measures and transformation to market.
PARAGONE, the second H2020 project focuses on vaccines for animal parasites and is coordinated by Professor Jacqui Matthews at the Moredun Institute. Jacqui outlined the objectives for the project: to develop at least two multicellular parasite vaccines towards commercialization, target hosts include cattle, sheep and poultry and these to ideally be recombinant vaccines.
Dr Mike Turner from the Wellcome Trust introduced the new Wellcome Trust Science strategy.
An case study session was opened up to the conference delegation to discuss three priority themes:
A new unknown veterinary pathogen has emerged, what would be your decision tree for developing a vaccine (or not).
- Understanding the pathogen
- Severity/Economic impact/zoonotic? Role of government or industry
- Treatments – efficacious, cost or Control strategies e.g. Cull, antibiotics
- Vaccine development
- Feasibility of production (safety/cost) – challenge model
- Policy/regulation
- Commercial feasibility
- Ease of delivery/stability
Where can veterinary vaccinology have the biggest impact on the One Health Agenda?
Veterinary vaccinology can lead in tackling antimicrobial resistance (example seen in the fish industry); understanding disease pathogenesis in natural host species; rapidity of validating vaccine/adjuvant platform technologies; impacts on the environment as well as trade and food security. There is a need for veterinary vaccinology to be emphasized in public engagement activities.
Platform technologies: Doing what we do, better?
Discussions highlighted the need for standardized protocols; shared resources included biological material and datasets; cost –effective facilities for animals and pathogens; adjuvant banks and knowledge and linking mucosal immunology with oral vaccine delivery.
Rapporteurs were identified for each group with the purpose of capturing the key discussion points and reporting these back to the collective delegation in the form of one slide. The breakout sessions provided an excellent opportunity for the delegates to interact in an informal setting and generate ideas to progress vaccine development. They also helped the Network Co-ordination Group identify topics for further meetings/workshops and indicated to funders the gaps in capability and how these might be addressed.
The conference ended with the Working effectively with industry theme, where presentations demonstrated research-industry collaborations on Classical Swine Fever vaccines, Dr Mahesh Kumar (Zoetis) and the making of Bovela – a vaccine against bovine viral diarrhea, Dr Konrad Stadler (Boehringer Ingelheim).
A final presentation was given by Dr George Warwime (The Jenner Institute) on One Health Research: Ebola and RVF Vaccines – Lessons learnt. The presentation focused on the development of a novel Rift Valley Fever vaccine which has the potential to be developed for humans and livestock.
Special thanks to MSD Animal Health for providing financial support to fund international speakers as well as BioRad Serotech for funding a tea & coffee break.
Presentations can be found on Highlights from the UK Veterinary Vaccinology Network Conference 2016