The research project "Assessment of Structural Requirements in Complement-Mediated Bactericidal Events: Towards a Global Approach to the Selection of New Vaccine Candidates, –BacAbs-" was launched in January 2007 by a consortium of nine institutions –academic and industrial- from six European countries. With a duration of three years, this STReP (Specific Targeted Research Project) is supported by funding under the Sixth Research Framework Programme of the European Union.
The project aims at: a) implementing a novel multidisciplinary approach to investigate the requirements, at the molecular-structure level, for viable (bactericidal) vaccine candidates and b) developing bioinformatics tools to predict compliance with such requirements.
High throughput cloning and expression of large sets of genomic ORFs has become a preferred industrial strategy for genome-wide searches of new vaccine candidates. For invasive infections in particular, the aim is to find proteins eliciting antibodies capable of binding to the bacterial cell surface and, through interaction with the complement system, effectively kill the bacteria. However, current data accumulating from reverse vaccinology studies (targeting of possible vaccine candidates starting from genomic information) shows that only a small fraction of surface-exposed proteins appears to elicit antibodies with bactericidal activity.
To investigate correlations with bactericidity, the BacAbs project will undertake a systematic analysis of sequence, structure, dynamics and interactions of selected protein targets using model systems of medical interest such as serogroup-B Neisseria meningitidis , a pathogen causing septicemia and meningitis for which no effective vaccine exists.
The Consortium comprises an industrial partner with extensive experience on vaccine development –Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, Italy-, three small or medium enterprises with strong expertises on several of the key technological aspects of the project –ASLA Biotech, Latvia; Bio-Xtal, France; INFOCIENCIA, Spain-, and five academic partners with groups having internationally recognized tracks on experimental and theoretical studies of protein structure and interactions –Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain; Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy; Jacobs University Bremen, Germany; Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy; Universiteit Utrecht, Netherlands-.