IMSE Webinar Series
Challenges in Antimicrobial Resistance
The challenge that will be discussed in this session is:
Viral Interferon Inhibiting Proteins Enhance Immunogenicity of Self-Amplifying RNA Vaccines
Join us for this informal webinar with Dr Anna Blakney. There will be an opportunity for question and answer after the presentation. To join this webinar you must register in advance and you will be emailed the joining instructions for the webinar.
Abstract
Self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) is a cutting-edge vaccine technology, as it is relatively cheap and rapid to manufacture, and can be designed to express any antigen gene of interest (GOI). Unlike plasmid DNA (pDNA), it does not require delivery to the nucleus and exhibits greater protein expression compared to messenger RNA (mRNA). However, innate immune sensing of RNA has been associated with the inhibition of antigen expression and may be the cause of disparities between immunogenicity in preclinical animal studies and human clinical trials. We hypothesized that cis-encoding proteins from viruses that are known to inhibit the interferon pathway would dampen the innate sensing and enhance both the protein expression and immunogenicity of saRNA vaccines. Here, we designed a range of VPII saRNA constructs and characterized the protein expression in vitro in human cell lines and ex vivo in human skin explants, and the immunogenicity in vivo in mice and rabbits.
Biography
Dr Anna Blakney
Faculty of Medicine, Department of Infectious Diseases
Dr. Anna K. Blakney is a bioengineer with training in drug delivery systems for the treatment and/or prevention of infectious diseases. Her background includes training in chemical and biological engineering, polymeric biomaterials, drug delivery, host response, immunology, vaccinology, molecular biology and formulation science. She is motivated to pursue translational designs that will impact populations in low-resource settings. Since December of 2016, she has been a Research Fellow in Prof. Robin Shattock‘s laboratory at Imperial College London, initially funded by a Whitaker Post-Doctoral Fellowship and subsequently by a Marie Curie Individual Research Fellowship, join with Prof. Molly Stevens. Her research focuses on optimization of molecular RNA design and formulation for enhanced protein expression and immune response in vivo.
If you have any questions about accessibility requirements please email Leah Adamson (IMSE Events Officer) on l.adamson@imperial.ac.uk
More webinars in the Antimicrobial Resistance Webinar series:
- 7 May 14.00 Studying Ratcheting Complexity in Evolution presented by Dr Morgan Beeby
- 21 May 14.00 How Artificial Gut Systems Show How Gut Microbiota Protect from Infection presented by Dr Julie McDonald
- 28 May 14.00 Synthetic Biology in Yeast for Sensing Pathogens Secreting Antimicrobials presented by Professor Tom Ellis
For more information about IMSE involvement with surfaces to combat Antimicrobial Resistance please read our briefing paper Smart Surfaces to Tackle Infection and Anti Microbial Resistance