Immunomic Discovery of Adjuvants and Candidate Subunit Vaccines

This volume will address an important emergent area within the field of immunomics: the discovery of antigens and adjuvants within the context of reverse vaccinology. Conventional approaches to vaccine design and development requires pathogens to be cultivated in the laboratory and the immunogenic molecules within them to be identifiable. Conventional vaccinology is no longer universally successful, particularly for recalcitrant pathogens. By using genomic information we can study vaccine development in silico: 'reverse vaccinology', can identify candidate subunits vaccines by identifying antigenic proteins and by using equally rational approaches to identify novel immune response-enhancing adjuvants.

Introduction.- Bacterial genomes and vaccine design.- Identification of candidate vaccine antigens in silico.- Post-Genomic Antigen Discovery: Bioinformatical Approaches to Reveal Novel T-Cell Antigens of Mycobacterium Bovis.- Genome-based Computational Vaccine Discovery by Reverse Vaccinology.- Computational prediction of protein subcellular localization, genomic islands, and virulence to aid antigen discovery.- On the development of Vaccine Antigen Databases: Progress, Opportunity, and Challenge.- What have Dendritic Cells ever done for adjuvant design?  Cellular and Molecular Methods for the Rational Development of Vaccine Adjuvants.- Towards the Rational Discovery of Adjuvants.- Designing liposomes as vaccine adjuvants.- Enhancing the delivery and potency of antigens using non-ionic based vesicles.- Immune stimulating complexes (ISCOMs) and Quil-A containing particulate formulations as vaccine delivery systems.- Formulation and characterisation of PLGA microspheres as vaccine adjuvants.- Powder Vaccines for Pulmonary Delivery.

Dr. Darren R Flower. An interdisciplinary scientist, with special interest in bioinformatics, computational chemistry, and cheminformatics, Dr. Flower has wide-ranging experience of the pre-clinical research environment in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry. Before joining Aston University as a Reader, Dr. Flower was a Jenner Research Fellow and Principal Investigator at the University of Oxford; and formerly a Senior Group Leader managing a large research group at The Edward Jenner Institute for Vaccine Research. Before that, Dr. Flower was a drug discovery scientist in the Pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Flower is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the author of over 150 research papers and reviews, and 7 Books, including the monograph: Bioinformatics for Vaccinology.

Professor Yvonne Perrie is Pharmacist whose research focuses on the development on delivery systems for drugs and vaccines. Prof. Perrie is currently Head of Pharmacy and Chair in Drug Delivery within Aston University.  Prof. Perrie received her Ph.D. from the University of London, UK where she investigated the use of liposomes for gene delivery under the supervision of Professor Gregory Gregoriadis. Prof. Perrie then joined a newly established Drug Delivery Company, Lipoxen Technologies Ltd., prior to taking her post at Aston University. Prof. Perrie is currently Chair of the UK and Ireland Controlled Release Society and has approximately 100 research papers and reviews focusing on the research and development of drug delivery systems.