Sugar Coated Vaccines - online Webinar by Dr Chris Jones
Many bacterial pathogens hide from host immune defences behind a polysaccharide capsule or lipopolysaccharide layer. Antibodies against these polysaccharides can provide protection against infection. Glycoconjugate vaccines, in which the polysaccharide is covalently attached to a suitable carrier protein induce highly effective immune responses, preventing establishment of an infection, pathogen carriage and transmission between hosts. These platform technologies, employing a range of saccharides, conjugation chemistries and carrier proteins, have been licensed in a wide range of vaccines against Haemophilus influenzae type b, meningococcal meningitis, pneumococcal pneumonia and typhoid. Many other vaccines, against Group B Streptococcus, Staphylococcus aureus, cholera, paratyphoid and other pathogens are in late-stage development or clinical trials. In this talk I will explain the structures of these vaccines, the methods and manufacture and the detailed chemical characterisation supporting their use.Dr Chris Jones was educated at imperial College, Southampton and Cambridge, and worked for 33 years at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, now part of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. As a Head of Division, he spearheaded development of physicochemical methods for the characterisation and quality control of biological medicines and was the Institute expert on the analysis of glycoconjugate vaccines. He worked with the British, European and United States Pharmacopoeias, and the World Health Organisation on the development of regulatory standards for these products.
