Projects

A universal influenza vaccine that in all population groups can provide long-term protection against different influenza strains, including new “pandemic” viruses, is most needed. In this project, we propose a novel vaccine platform, termed Galsomes, that is composed of lipid nanoparticles that co-deliver glycolipid antigens and mRNA encoding viral proteins to antigen presenting cells (APCs). Previous research learned us that activating ...

In this project we will introduce our self-amplifying mRNA vaccine platform in chicken. To that end we will design and in vitro validate two mRNA vaccines encoding selected antigens of one of the most important pathogens in poultry production. Subsequently, we will formulate the sa-mRNA vaccines with UGent owned lipid nanoparticles and investigate their immunogencity and protection efficacy in a challenge study in chicken.

Campylobacter jejuni is the most common cause of bacterial foodborne disease. Poultry products are considered the most important source. Campylobacter colonization in broilers might be reduced by immunization-based approaches. However, an effective vaccine is not yet available.
The ultimate goal of this project is to construct and evaluate a self-replicating mRNA Campylobacter vaccine, expressing immunodominant antigens in chickens.

Using a systems immunology approach, we have set up an exhaustive flow cytometry platform to promote high dimensional single cell analysis for human immunophenotyping and I am running several clinical studies investigating the immune landscape in various disorders with the aim of unravelling underlying immune mechanisms involved in the studied disorders.

Although the Galsome mRNA vaccine platform has a broad application potential, we opt to first accelerate validation and valorization of Galsomes for treatment of solid tumors. The first objective is to accelerate the translation of Galsomes to a clinical-grade product. This in view of a phase Ia/b clinical trial in lung cancer patients. FThe second objective aims to address the market trend for targeting “neo-antigens” by validating ...

Immunotherapy, in the shape of "immune checkpoint inhibitors" (ICI), has revolutionized the treatment of many cancers. ICI alleviate tumor-induced exhaustion of anti-tumoral T-cells. Clinical effects are however limited to a minority of patients where tumors are pre-seeded with (exhausted) T-cells, i.e. immune "hot" tumors. Unfortunately in most patients tumors are poor in T-cells, also known as an immune "cold" state. Our research focuses on ...