Novel Tools, Resources and Technologies
Research Gaps
Immunological
- Better field evaluation methods
- Lack of tools for veterinary medical research, in particular to measure proteins
- Predictive molecular tools to monitor how vaccine will perform
- Immunological reagents to define/characterize correlates of protection/vaccine induced immune responses
- Unavailability of systems/tools for the induction of class I MHC restricted T cell responses in large mammals.
- Comprehensive sets of cell surface markers and cytokine reagents for the veterinary species.
- Tools and methods to evaluate immunogenicity/ protective efficacy of vaccines
- Tools and reagents to probe immune responses in a variety of veterinary species
Adjuvants
- Adjuvants and adjuvant technologies that work in veterinary species and are species- specific
- Development of novel delivery systems and adjuvants.
- commercialisable adjuvants
- Suitable and safe adjuvants for inactivated or recombinant protein vaccines
- How adjuvants compare against each other and between species
- Development of adjuvants to stimulate mucosal immunity with inactivated antigens in mammalian, poultry and aquatic species
- Appropriate adjuvants that would balance Th1 and Th2 response
- Strategic use of adjuvants and other immuno-enhancers and immuno-modulators
- Understanding the mechanism of adjuvant action, improving targeting and reducing side effects
Vectors
- Vaccine vectors
- Better delivery platforms for vaccines (e.g. vectors)
- New generation viral vector based vaccine that induces innate and cellular immunity in addition to humoral immunity
Models
- Development of in vitro models that more closely mimic the host-pathogen interaction in protective as well as in pathogenic responses during the process of vaccination and infection.
- In vitro models will facilitate mathematical model development which in turn will feed back potential in vivo hypothesis driven research avenues.
- Development of novel fish cell lines
- The availability of high quality in vitro and in vivo models for the efficacy and safety evaluation of veterinary vaccines for endemic and exotic veterinary diseases
Embracing New Technologies
- Nanotechnology being applied to livestock vaccines
- Embracing new vaccine technologies (e.g DNA vaccines)
- Novel synthetic biology approaches to vaccine development
- Platform technology for virus candidate vaccines
- Systems biology and reverse vaccinology approaches.