Recipient: Charité – University of Berlin
Funding: Go-Bio initial (01/10/2022 to 30/09/2023, EUR 119,907.84)

Project description:

The vaccines against respiratory viruses approved to date have only limited effectiveness against virus uptake and transmission. This is due to the fact that classic vaccines are usually administered systemically, but the infections take place via the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract as an entry point. It has been found that iron oxide nanoparticles have a significantly higher effect than conventional enhancers. The project idea of MucoVac includes the development of vaccines based on iron oxide nanoparticles, which are applied directly to the mucous membrane of the nasopharynx (topical application). What is new about this is that the iron oxide nanoparticles are both antigen carriers and enhancers and, in contrast to previous developments in nanoparticulate topical vaccines, carry the antigen on their surface. An innovative delivery method is to be additionally found to transport the vaccine through the upper barriers of the mucosa and trigger a highly potent immune response.

Within the framework of the "GO-Bio initial" programme, the patent law situation will be clarified in the exploratory phase, a market analysis will be carried out to determine the market potential and, by means of scientific research and initial experiments, an antigen-nanoparticle system that has the potential for promising further development will be created. In vitro (for experiments in cell cultures) and in-vivo models (for animal experiments) suitable for testing the innovative vaccines are to be additionally identified.