Projects
Pertussis vaccination during pregnancy: long term effects on children's immunity before and after administration of a fifth dose of a pertussis containing vaccine. University of Antwerp
Improving vaccine distribution supply chain design in low- and middle-income countries: a data-driven modelling approach. KU Leuven
Immunization substantially contributes to global health by saving millions of lives every year. Yet, a vast amount of people around the world, including nearly 20 to 25 million infants each year, have insufficient access to vaccines. Challenges related to the storage and distribution of vaccines persist, contributing to vaccination coverage rates that are below the required thresholds to reach herd immunity. Our research is motivated and ...
Production of immunogenic tumor lysate loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticles as anti-cancer vaccine KU Leuven
With cancer being a leading cause of mortality, immunotherapy is emerging as an innovative procedure to control the disease. It is a fast evolving complex field aiming to stimulate components of the immune system against tumor cells. One of these approaches is active specific immunotherapy based on the injection of autologous mature dendritic cells loaded with autologous tumor lysate. Proof-of-principle studies have shown that these vaccines ...
Towards a universal mRNA-based therapeutic vaccine against HIV Ghent University
Despite major efforts, no therapeutic HIV-1 vaccine tested to date has been successful in eliciting effective anti-viral responses while at the same time avoiding the emergence of viral escape variants. We recently demonstrated that lipid-based delivery of a mRNA vaccine encoding the HIV-1 Gag antigen to dendritic cells from HIV-1 positive patients expanded autologous HIV-1 specific T cell responses in vitro and primed the induction of HIV-1 ...
Exploring the ideal genital tract liquid biopsy: standardization of anti-HPV antibody detection in first-void urine for non-invasive vaccine monitoring. University of Antwerp
Development of a buccal self-amplifying mRNA vaccine for periodontal disease prophylaxis in dogs. Ghent University
About 9 out of 10 adult dogs have some form of Periodontal Disease (PD), an infection-induced inflammatory disease of the tooth-supporting tissues. PD is typically associated with halitosis, oral pain, and tooth loss; however, severe PD can lead to oronasal fistulation, oral osteomyelitis, and exacerbation of systemic disorders, like cardiovascular disease. Despite PD’s vast disease burden, control options remain limited and ineffective, ...
Developing a broadly protecting vaccine against polymicrobial sepsis. Ghent University
WHO has recently labeled sepsis as a most urgent unmet medical need With 30 million cases and 8 million deaths yearly (including 3 million children) sepsis is indeed very prevalent The infectious bacterial agent is unpredictable, but mostly belongs to a shortlist of about 10 species, and bacterial septic pneumonias and peritonitis share a number of overlapping contaminants In a mouse model of polymicrobial septic peritonitis, we have ...
Towards a thermostable dual yellow fever/Lassa fever virus vaccine and therapeutic strategies against the Lassa and related mammarenaviruses. KU Leuven
The Lassa fever virus (LASV) causes a deadly viral hemorrhagic disease in West-Africa (~300.000 cases and ~5.000 deaths/year). Lassa fever (LF) is mostly transmitted through exposure to a rodent (genus Mastomys). Also person-to-person transmission occurs, which is in particular problematic for health care workers. An estimated 59 million people are at risk and large outbreaks occurred in the past; LASV has a high potential for widespread ...
New intranasal marker vector vaccine for protection of horses against equine herpesvirus 1 related and other (re)emerging viral diseases. Ghent University
Equine herpesvirus 1 is causing respiratory, reproductive and neurological disorders, resulting in financial losses in horse industry. In Belgium, only inactivated vaccines are available which only partially protects horses. As an infection with wild type virus is establishing a full protection for 6 months, an intranasal vaccination will give the best prevention. Two intranasal attenuated EHV-1 viruses have been developed in the promoter’s ...