Vaccine Development Institute at Pitzer College
Vaccines are considered the most cost-effective control measure for diseases. The World Bank has stated that it costs less than $20 to prevent a year of illness by using a vaccine targeted against a specific pathogen. Unfortunately, the majority of developing countries are ill-equipped to create vaccines and current production costs are high. Moreover, the manufacturing of vaccines for many diseases is unattractive to private enterprises because there is little or no return on their investments.
University of Botswana Virologists Wata Mpoloka and Melvin Leteane with Vaccine Development Institute Director Dr. Larry Grill
The Institute's Objectives
The goal of the Vaccine Development Institute at Pitzer College, in partnership with the University of Botswana, is to put in place the mechanisms and capacity for cost-effectively producing vaccines that address urgent health priorities in southern Africa.
The Pitzer exchange program at the University of Botswana (UB) in Gaborone, Botswana, has provided the platform by which to establish a partnership between UB and Pitzer to develop innovative technologies to create low-cost, Botswana-produced vaccines for human and animal diseases prevalent in southern Africa. Faculty, staff and students from both institutions will work cooperatively to develop the rapid and cost effective method to create and produce vaccines that will benefit to Botswana and other southern African nations.
Dr. Larry Grill, the director of the Vaccine Development Institute, has joined with Pitzer College to work on this nonprofit, collaborative project to develop effective vaccines that can be produced by the countries that need them. Led by virologists Melvin Leteane and Wata Mpoloka, UB faculty, staff and students, in consultation with the Botswanan Ministry of Health, will develop a list of vaccines, prioritized for development purposes.
The left side of the plant above is lighted by regular light, while the plant on the right is shown under ultraviolet light. Under the UV light conditions, one can see the “green fluorescent protein” (normally found in jellyfish) which has been inserted into the plant using the technology that will eventually be used to produce animal and human vaccines.
The Method
The technology that the Vaccine Development Institute will use is based on using a common, well-known plant virus, the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), which does not cause disease in non-plant species. This plant virus is only infectious for a few solanaceous plant species and is easily contained and controlled when grown in outdoor environments, as has been shown in outdoor productions done in Kentucky, North Carolina and Florida since 1991. As such, this technology is safe for use around the world. Grill himself has been involved with developing TMV as a protein and peptide production system for the last twenty years.
The program's key component is to use the TMV system to rapidly identify immunoactive antigens for disease-causing human and animal pathogens, using technology that has already been developed. Subsequently, the TMV will be engineered to display the most active antigens on the surface of the plant virus. In effect, the TMV will be “decorated” to look like the infectious human and animal pathogens, while not being infectious, and these “decorated” plant viruses will trigger the animal and human immune response that will lead to protective immunity. Already multiple vaccines have been produced that have shown efficacy in clinical trials using the TMV-based system.
In addition to their ability to be produced rapidly and inexpensively, another benefit of these vaccines is that they will likely be able to be stored at room temperature as a dried powder that can be hydrated just prior to inoculation, making the “cold-chain” control of the vaccine, less of a concern.
The Pilot Project
As an initial pilot project, the Institute is developing a production system for a vaccine against Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD), which causes a chronic debility in cattle comparable to foot-and-mouth disease and leads to serious nutritional and economic losses because of the high morbidity rate following outbreaks. Currently, there is no specific antiviral treatment available for LSD-infected cattle. This disease has decimated cattle in large numbers in Botswana and other countries in Africa. The Institute's goal is to develop a rapid system to identify the immunoactive antigens that are critical for a vaccine against the LSD and then use these to make the inexpensive vaccine.
During the summer of 2008 under Grill's direction, Leteane and Mpoloka partnered with Claremont Colleges students to begin familiarizing themselves with TMV's capabilities. To illustrate the first stage of the genetic manipulation process they “decorated” the cells with a fluorescent protein found in jellyfish. Within two days of inoculation the plants started exhibiting bright green, glowing spots that indicated the protein had made its way through the plants' systems. What this exercise demonstrates is that the same procedure can be used to rapidly transport vaccine proteins throughout the system ultimately leading to an exhibited immune responsive.
Since the correct genetic sequence with which to “decorate” the TMV and effectively combat Lumpy Skin Disease is yet to be determined, Grill, Leteane, Mpoloka and participating students will begin testing sequences until they pinpoint the exact protein.
For more information on the Vaccine Development Institute please contact Director of Exchanges Kebokile Dengu-Zvobgo at kebokile_dengu-zvobgo@pitzer.edu or (909) 607-3609.