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Glycoengineered erythrocytes for better influenza vaccines

Grant number: 101081818

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Key facts

  • Disease

    Influenza caused by Influenza A virus subtype H3

  • Start & end year

    2022
    2024

  • Known Financial Commitments (USD)

    $149,790

  • Funder

    European Commission

  • Principal Investigator

    DE VRIES Robert

  • Research Location

    Netherlands

  • Lead Research Institution

    UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT

  • Research Priority Alignment

    N/A

  • Research Category

    Pathogen: natural history, transmission and diagnostics

  • Research Subcategory

    Diagnostics

  • Special Interest Tags

    N/A

  • Study Type

    Non-Clinical

  • Clinical Trial Details

    N/A

  • Broad Policy Alignment

    Pending

  • Age Group

    Not Applicable

  • Vulnerable Population

    Not applicable

  • Occupations of Interest

    Not applicable

Abstract

The objective of this ERC PoC project is to establish technical and commercial feasibility of our recently developed glycan-engineered red blood cells (RBCs) for antigenic characterization of circulating influenza A/H3N2 viruses. Due to the rapid evolution of influenza A/H3N2 viruses, antigenic characterization by the widely used hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay is not possible anymore. Continuous antigenic characterization of influenza A viruses is, however, essential for the development of protective seasonal vaccines. The ERC program "sugar-enable" has developed glycoengineered RBCs that make it possible again to antigenically characterize circulating A/H3N2 viruses by the standard HI assay, and it is expected that the cells will find application in hundreds of laboratories worldwide.