A new research collaboration aims to develop new methods and tools to non-invasively monitor the growth and performance of plants used in the production of Virus-Like Particles (VLPs). In doing so, the research will help to optimize the biotechnology for plant-based vaccine development.
Initiated and supported by the Centre for Entrepreneurial Agri-Technology (CEAT) and ANU Innovation, the project will involve researchers from the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) – supported Australian Plant Phenomics Facility (APPF), ANU’s Research School of Biology (RSB) and the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS), in collaboration with Canadian biopharmaceutical company, Medicago R&D Inc.
Medicago R&D Inc uses a proprietary plant-based technology to develop vaccines and protein-based therapeutics. Key to their technology is the production of Virus-Like Particles (VLPs) as vaccines. VLPs mimic the structure of viruses and can induce an immune response without causing an infection. When purified, VLPs have the potential to be used as vaccines against a range of viruses, such as influenza, rotavirus, and norovirus.
Medicago’s proprietary technology is rapid, versatile, and scalable. Importantly, its recombinant technology allows the production of a vaccine that can match the circulating strains, such as in the case of seasonal influenza.
A five-year collaboration agreement between ANU and Medicago has recently been signed, with the collaboration consisting of multiple projects, starting with a $1M project to take place over 14 months.
In this initial project, the APPF’s Plant Phenomics Group at ANU – that includes Tim Brown and Richard Poire-Lassus – is contributing its full range of facilities and expertise in phenomics, bioinformatics, and data visualisation, as well as access to state of the art equipment and infrastructure such as hyperspectral scanning, and sophisticated controlled environment growth chambers.
As Tim Brown, APPF’s ANU Node director, says, “This technology is very exciting, delivering the capacity to use plants to rapidly make vaccines. To be able to contribute ANU/APPF’s advanced phenotyping know-how and technologies to the project is really special.”
During the initial project, CECS will be contributing the expertise of Professor Hongdong Li and Liang Zheng.
Hongdong Li from CECS says he is “pleased to be supplying expertise in the application of computer-based approaches to develop deep-learning models of plant growth.”
Together with Medicago R&D Inc, the ANU partners will work to develop new methods and tools to non-invasively monitor the growth and performance of plants used in the production of VLPs.
Owen Atkin, director, Centre for Entrepreneurial Agri-Technology (CEAT) is proud that CEAT has been able to play a central role in bringing together the APPF, RSB, CECS and Medicago R&D Inc.
“The collaboration highlights the value of university-based, interdisciplinary teams working with an industry partner to help address complex challenges of global significance – in this case, the urgent need to improve global access to vaccines,” says Atkin.
Source: Seed World