Team:Slovenia/Project

Immunobricks

Almost half of the world population is infected with bacteria Helicobacter pylori which is also recognized as a type I carcinogen by WHO. Effective vaccine against H.pylori is not available, although it would be a durable solution, particularly in a formulation affordable to the third world population. H.pylori evades the immune surveillance by modifying several of its components to avoid detection by several Toll-like receptors. Recent discoveries demonstrate that synergy between innate and adaptive immune response is essential for an effective vaccine. We used principles of synthetic biology to assemble well defined synthetic vaccine, composed of the functional “immunobricks”, which combine the activation of innate immune receptors, appropriate cellular localization for processing of antigens and antigenic segments to stimulate formation of antibodies and cellular adaptive response. Our engineered vaccine was implemented in three different types of vaccines based on recombinant protein, engineered bacteria and genetic vaccine.