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Review
. 2024 Dec 22;12(12):1446.
doi: 10.3390/vaccines12121446.

Boosting Vaccine Research: The 16-Year Journey of TRANSVAC Vaccine Infrastructure

William Martin  1 , Catarina Luís  1 , Stefan Jungbluth  1 , Monika Slezak  1 , Frank A W Verreck  2 , Holger Spiegel  3 , Carlos A Guzman  4 , António Roldão  5 , Manuel J T Carrondo  5 , Peter Van der Ley  6 , Joaquim Segalés  7 , Hazel M Dockrell  8 , Mei Mei Ho  9 , Gabriel K Pedersen  10 , Maria Lawrenz  11 , Ole F Olesen  1
Affiliations
Review

Boosting Vaccine Research: The 16-Year Journey of TRANSVAC Vaccine Infrastructure

William Martin et al. Vaccines (Basel). .

Abstract

TRANSVAC represents a long-running effort to accelerate the development of novel vaccines by integrating institutions from across Europe under a single collaborative framework. This initiative has empowered the global vaccine community since 2009 including contributing toward the development and optimization of vaccine candidates as well as the provision of new adjuvants, research protocols, and technologies. Scientific services were provided in support of 88 different vaccine development projects, and 400 professionals attended TRANSVAC training events on various vaccine-related topics. Here, we review the accomplishments of the TRANSVAC consortia and analyze the continued needs of academic and industrial vaccine developers in Europe. The findings highlight the benefits of coordination across different sectors, both through research infrastructures such as TRANSVAC and other mechanisms, to address the current and future global health challenges and ensure that European vaccine developers have the support required to successfully compete in the global market.

Keywords: research and development; research infrastructure; vaccine.

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Conflict of interest statement

P.V.d.L. is named as a co-inventor in two patents covering the use of modified LPS adjuvants discussed in the text (WO2017129752 and WO2017129761). C.A.G. is named as a co-inventor in a patent covering the use of CDA as a neonatal adjuvant discussed in the text (EP 19193982), which was previously patented covering the use of CDA as an adjuvant (PCT/EP 2006010693). Author P.V.d.L. was employed by the company Intravacc BV. The authors declare no other conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overview of TRANSVAC projects.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Pillars of the TRANSVAC vaccine infrastructure.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Distribution of TRANSVAC service projects. (A) Countries of residence of applicants awarded TRANSVAC projects. (B) Disease targets of TRANSVAC service projects. * Diseases not included in Vaccines Europe’s 2023 pipeline review [5]. ‡ Diseases with no approved vaccine currently available. (C) Delivery systems employed by TRANSVAC-supported vaccine candidates. Fifteen projects were omitted from the figure due to being too early stage (e.g., antigen identification), or platform-based, and three projects included multiple candidate delivery systems. (D) Intended administration route of TRANSVAC vaccine projects. Twenty-nine projects were not included as an administration route was not decided or unclear, and five projects involved hybrid protocols (e.g., prime-pull strategies) or compared multiple administration routes.
Figure 4
Figure 4
TRANSVAC scientific services provided along vaccine development pipeline.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Results of the TRANSVAC scientific services user survey.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Distribution of applicants to TRANSVAC training events. Numbers correspond to the number of applications to TRANSVAC training events from applicants residing in each country.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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