Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) have been awarded £2 million funding through the UK Technology Mission Research and Innovation (UKRI) Fund to develop new vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics.
The funding is part of a £12.3m award to develop a GlycoCell engineering biology mission hub, based at the University of Nottingham.
The Hub will bring together a range of experts from different fields to unlock the potential of glycans, sugar-based biomolecules that function in our cells and proteins.
Glycans have a huge influence on our biology, are an integral part of how our immune system interacts with pathogens and ensure that many modern pharmaceuticals work properly. However, they are currently very difficult to study and manufacture, and are sometimes referred to as the “dark matter” of biology.
With the new funding, The Hub will focus on further studying their interactions, as well as exploiting modern technologies to enable their bioengineering. The team hopes this will speed up vaccine discovery and production, create new therapeutics and diagnostics, and dramatically reduce the cost of producing advanced drugs.
Glycans or sugars play key roles in both fundamental biology and biotechnology.
The GlycoCell consortium will exploit novel Engineering Biology approaches to produce more effective glycan-based therapeutics, diagnostics and vaccines.”
Professor Brendan Wren, Co-Director of both the GlycoCell Engineering Biology Mission Hub and LSHTM’s Vaccine Center
Professor Wren’s co-director and principal investigator for the Hub, Dr John Heap, from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nottingham, said:
“We are delighted to receive this significant investment from DSIT and UKRI to take the GlycoCell Hub forward.
“He will make a leading, transformative contribution to creating a healthier, more sustainable, just and prosperous future.”
Alongside the University of Nottingham, the project will be a collaboration between researchers at Imperial College London, the University of Dundee, the Quadram Institute and the University of Exeter and three industrial partners – Iceni Glycoscience, Synthace Limited, Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
The Hub is one of six new Engineering Biology Mission Hub projects and 22 Mission Award projects announced by the Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, Andrew Griffith, designed to unlock the potential of Engineering Biology.
GlycoCell will:
- Unlock our ability to program glycan sugars, opening a world of research opportunities in biology and medical biotechnology.
- Design, test and develop many new therapeutics, diagnostics and vaccines against pathogens that affect human and animal health.
- Improve our pandemic preparedness.
- Address antimicrobial resistance by developing vaccines against pathogenic bacteria and fungi, reducing our reliance on antibiotics to combat these threats.
- Develop the technology to transfer the production of advanced drugs to microbial hosts, significantly reducing their costs thanks to scalable production.
- Build and deploy GlycoForge, a specialist automated facility, as a UK national asset that will routinely develop vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics and be ready to deliver a 100-day rapid response to new pandemic threats.
- Educate the current generation and develop future leaders in Engineering Biology for academia, industry and the public sector.
