Development of Pre-Clinical Platforms for Enhanced Vaccine Design

Supervisor: Dr Deborah Burnett

Project: Development of Pre-Clinical Platforms for Enhanced Vaccine Design

Society has entered an era characterised by unprecedented technological, demographic, and environmental shifts, heightening the risks associated of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. In light of these challenges, there is an urgent need to swiftly and effectively develop new vaccines. Overcoming the existing hurdles in vaccine production is crucial. The current pre-clinical vaccine evaluation technologies face limitations in throughput and demonstrate poor correlation with real-world success. Consequently, a staggering 90% of vaccines encounter failure late in the clinical evaluation process, after investing approximately 7-10 years and $200-400 million. Additionally, the development of vaccines against important infectious threats, such as Group A Streptococcus, of critical importance to Australian remote and Indigenous communities, is hindered by concerns that the vaccine itself might trigger autoimmune diseases.

The objective of this PhD project is to leverage cutting-edge next-generation technologies to establish improved models that delve into the B cell and antibody response to vaccine antigens with unprecedented resolution. For the first time, this project will develop and directly compare different pre-clinical vaccine evaluation models, aiming to establish platforms capable of expediting vaccine development against critically important infectious disease threats.