The NOSEVAC project, co-funded by the European Commission and coordinated by European Vaccine Initiative (EVI), held its first annual meeting on April 23-24, 2024. Partners and members of its scientific and ethics advisory committee (SEAC) met to discuss progress, challenges and upcoming activities carried out during the first year of the project. This two-day event included an open session for scientists and students at CiMUS (Center for Research in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases) in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
April 2024
The successful meeting gathered 30 consortium and 4 SEAC members to discuss project progress. At least two representatives from each consortium partner attended in person, and several staff members from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) participated in the general session. The meeting was greatly enriched by presentations and recommendations from the SEAC members.
The overarching objective of NOSEVAC project is to develop novel nasal vaccines and immunisation strategies to prevent colonisation and transmission of human respiratory pathogens at their portal of entry. In conjunction with the annual meeting, the NOSEVAC consortium organised a public session titled “Science and logistics of safeguarding human airways”, chaired by Prof. Jean Claude Sirard. The session began with a key-note speech from Prof. Isabelle Bekeredjian-Ding, an expert with extensive regulatory expertise in microbiological safety of biomedical drugs, infectious disease product evaluation, and preclinical and clinical vaccine development. Prof. Bekeredjian-Ding shared some hints and tips that can be adopted for pandemic preparedness in vaccine design and development. Next, Prof. Ali M. Harandi showed challenges and opportunities of inducing airway immunity through vaccines, followed by a presentation from Dr. Noemi S. Csaba (USC) on development of formulations for nasal vaccines. A packed theatre at CiMUS buzzed with excitement and keen interest from local scientists, eager to engage with the presented topic.
During the closed Consortium meeting, the project teams reported on the progress made since the Kick-off meeting held in May 2023. Part of this work has been on development of new antigens for pathogens Streptococcus pneumoniae and Bordetella sp. together with analytical methods and model mRNA constructs. Next, progress on formulation development was discussed that was followed by discussion on action points for work packages that have just started, namely WP3 - In vitro activity of nasal vaccines in human cell-based systems, and WP4 - Preclinical evaluation of nasal vaccines animal models.
The gathering of the NOSEVAC General Assembly was a great opportunity for the new partner Associação do Instituto Superior Técnico para a Investigação e Desenvolvimento (IST-ID) to meet all consortium members in person and discuss activities related to new tasks included in NOSEVAC Description of Action through hop-on facility, and was also good chance for the University of Oxford and the Université de Genève to report on the on-going work on preparation for profiling of nasal human immune responses to infection and vaccination via 2 unified clinical trials conducted in kids and elderly in UK and Switzerland. The partners showed interesting results on optimisation of approaches to obtain cells from human nasal cavity with improved yield and viability.
On the second day, during breakout sessions, participants engaged in productive discussions on the technical aspects of work progress and key outcomes followed by preparation of action plans.
The NOSEVAC consortium has made immense progress in the development of mRNA based immunogens for COVID and Infuenza as well as new antigen composition for Streptococcus pneumoniae and Bordetella sp. Congratulations to the whole team!
You can like and share the post about the kick-off metting by clicking on this link: Annual meeting Linkedin Post
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Contact:
Project Manager: Monika Ślęzak, PhD
NOSEVAC partners:
PROJECT COORDINATOR
PROJECT PARTNERS:
Associação do Instituto Superior Técnico para a Investigação e Desenvolvimento (IST-ID)
Erasmus MC - department of Viroscience
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