Vaccines, Cancer Therapeutics and Diagnostics

National collaborations

• Niels Lorenzen, National Institute of Aquatic Resources Section for Fish and Shellfish Diseases, Technical University of Denmark (DTU).
• Charlotte Menne Bonefeld, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Skin Immunology Research Center, University of Copenhagen.
• Daniel Otzen, Nanoscience Center (iNANO)/Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics Aarhus University (Parkinson research).
• Søren Riis Paludan, Institut for Biomedicin, Aarhus University (COVID-19 vaccine).
• Frank Follman and Gabriel K- Pedersen, Statens serum institute (SSI) (mRNA vaccines).
• Jens Bukh, CoHEP, ISIM, University of Copenhagen (HCV vaccine).
• Jan Pravsgaard, ISIM, University of Copenhagen (Influenza vaccine).
• John Elmerdahl Olsen, Institut for Veterinær- og Husdyrvidenskab, UCPH (Vaccines to prevent post-weaning diarrhea in piglets).
• SEGES Innovation P/S, Karl Pedersen (Vaccines to prevent post-weaning diarrhea in piglets).
• Expres2ion Biotechnologies, Denmark (S2 protein expression)
• Camilla Foged, Department of Pharmacy, UCPH (mRNA vaccine formulation).

 International collaborations

• Lena Uller, Department of Experimental Medical Science, Lund University, Sweden.
• Aleksandra Sikora, Oregon State University, USA (Gonorrhea vaccine).
• Pier-Liogi Lollini, Bologna University, Italy (HER2 cancer vaccine).
• Robert Danels, Division of Viral Products, FDA, USA (Universal Flu vaccine)
• Benjamin Mordmüller, Radboud UMC university medical centre, Netherlands (clinical test of viral cVLP vaccine)
• Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Germany (BSL4 facility testing viral cVLP vaccine).

Funding

The VLPVAC Team has invented a versatile and effective vaccine platform that can deliver any protein antigen in a particulate and multivalent virus-like particle (VLP) format.

In the seminal paper from 2016 (Thrane S et al. J Nanobiotechnology, 2016) and in >30 follow-up papers, the versatility and preclinical efficacy of the vaccine platform has been firmly documented.

The technology has also been investigated for the development of vaccines against non-infectious diseases, incl. cancer and allergy, which has revealed a unique ability of the technology for overcoming B-cell tolerance.

Finally, the technology was recently used to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. In both preclinical (mouse and NHP) and human clinical (phase I-III) studies this vaccine has generated best-in-class immunogenicity and safety data, incl. durable antibody responses up to 12 months after immunization (Bavarian Nordic Reports 12-Month Durability Data from a (globenewswire.com))

In 2017, Adam Frederik Sander Bertelsen and colleagues founded the spinout company, AdaptVac, which so far has made two license agreements and have two cVLP vaccines in clinical testing.

Adam Frederik Sander Bertelsen is the main inventor on multiple (>20) patent applications covering five patent families.

In 2021, AdaptVac won the Ernst & Young 'Entrepreneur of The Year' and Adam Frederik Sander Bertelsen and the VLP vaccine team was nominated for the University of Copenhagen’s Innovation Award.