Frontier IP-The Vaccine Group Ltd awarded £50,000 grant to develop anti-bacterial vaccine to combat mastitis in cows

Frontier IP Group chief executive officer Neil Crabb said: “This award from a world-leading vaccinology network provides strong validation of the novel technology being developed by The Vaccine Group and its potential. We’re delighted and look forward to the results of the proof-of-concept study and the opportunities they might provide for longer-term commercialisation.”

Frontier IP (LON:FIPP), a specialist in university intellectual property commercialisation, today announces portfolio company, The Vaccine Group, has been awarded a £50,000 grant from the global Bacterial Vaccine Network to support development of a vaccine to combat one of the main causes of bovine mastitis, E.coli.

TVG, a University of Plymouth spin out, will use the grant to run a proof-of-concept study to investigate whether its novel platform technology can produce a safe-to-use vaccine that is cheaper and more effective than the vaccines currently available to farmers. E.coli is one of three main bacteria that causes bovine mastitis.

Mastitis costs the UK dairy industry £200 million a year through reduced milk production and quality. The disease is also a serious problem in low and middle-income countries which rely on milk as a staple food source. An effective vaccine would remove the need for farmers to use antibiotics and cut the risk of the bacteria developing antibiotic resistance.

TVG’s novel technology is based on safe forms of herpesviruses, which occur in nearly all animals, including humans. Vaccines are created through modifying these benign viruses by inserting regions of the target pathogen to stimulate immune responses against the disease. Other potential applications of the technology include vaccines to fight diseases that jump from animals to humans, such as Ebola, SARS, Marburg viruses, swine and bird flus.

The technology is being developed by Dr Michael Jarvis, Associate Professor of Virology and Immunology at the University of Plymouth’s School of Biomedical Sciences, and his team. They are working in collaboration with a global network of leading academics and institutions. Professor Alain Vanderplasschen of the Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases at the University of Liège, Belgium, is the main collaborator on the E.coli vaccine project.

BactiVac, based at the University of Birmingham, is a new global bacterial vaccinology network designed to bring together academia, industry and policy areas to accelerate vaccine development for use in low and middle-income countries. It provides funding for catalyst projects and training to promote such multidisciplinary interactive networks.

This work is supported by the Global Challenges Research Fund Networks in Vaccines Research and Development, which is co-funded by the Medical Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Research Council.

More information can be found here: TVG and BactiVac

TVG co-founder and director Dr Michael Jarvis said: “Networks such as BactiVac are critical in bringing together the necessary multidisciplinary expertise required to answer society’s problems. The current project is using a vaccine against bacteria as means to control bacterial infections, but without antibiotics and associated antibiotic microbial resistance (AMR) concerns”.

Click to view all articles for the EPIC:
Or click to view the full company profile:
    Facebook
    Twitter
    LinkedIn
    Frontier IP Group Plc

    More articles like this

    Frontier IP Group Plc

    Animal Lovers and Zoonotic Diseases: 5 Things to Know

    Zoonotic diseases, or zoonoses, are on the rise. That may first bring to mind exotic diseases like Ebola, but the reality is that many zoonotic infections happen closer to home, often during everyday activities. In 2018,

    Frontier IP Group Plc

    AI-based initiatives catalyzing immunotherapy in 2018

    Artificial intelligence (AI) has been dynamically changing the field of drug discovery in several areas, including immunotherapy, oncotherapy, neurological disease, and many more. Described here is an ensemble of the initiatives in place to advance the field of

    Frontier IP Group Plc

    Frontier IP Group Plc appoint N+1 Singer as sole broker

    Frontier IP Group PLC (LON:FIPP), a specialist in commercialising university intellectual property, today announced the appointment of Nplus1 Singer Advisory LLP as the Group’s sole broker with immediate effect. Allenby Capital Limited remains the Group’s Nominated Adviser.

    Frontier IP Group Plc

    Britain’s university spinout sector is thriving

    They are among Britain’s greatest national treasures and a powerful engine of ideas and innovation for the nation’s booming technology industry. But how good are UK universities at commercialising the research and expertise which springs from

    Frontier IP Group Plc

    Exscientia CEO explains how AI is transforming drug discovery

    In recent decades a strange confluence has formed in the pharmaceutical industry. A range of powerful technologies have brought enormous new capabilities to the sector, productivity has been simultaneously declining. Deloitte’s Centre for Health Solutions estimates that projected returns on investment

    Frontier IP Group Plc

    How technology is revolutionising the healthcare industry

    A technology revolution is transforming the healthcare industry, changing everything from how patients are diagnosed and treated to our battle against some of the world’s most serious diseases. It’s a revolution fuelled by new sources of

    Frontier IP Group Plc

    Artificial Intelligence will Revolutionise Drug Discovery

    New technologies are making their way into the healthcare industry and healthcare providers are already experimenting with advances such as smart pill technology, 3D-printed medication, and mobile apps. But probably the biggest potential lies in artificial intelligence

    Frontier IP Group Plc

    Rallybio forges joint venture with U.K. tech firm

    A Farmington biotech startup formed by a trio of former top Alexion executives said it is working on drug discovery with an artificial intelligence company in the United Kingdom. Rallybio, focused on rare diseases, has not yet publicly

    Frontier IP Group Plc

    What is leptospirosis and how can it harm us and our pets?

    Recently reported cases of the often fatal bacterial infection leptospirosis in dogs in Sydney have raised the issue of animal diseases that also affect humans. This zoonotic disease is spread by rats and other rodents. However, this

    Frontier IP Group Plc

    The Robot Uprising Is Here

    The robot uprising is inevitable. Take the world’s first raspberry-picking robot, an autonomous machine that’s in development by Fieldwork Robotics at the University of Plymouth in the UK. This fruit-picking Terminator, so to speak, was developed for

    Frontier IP Group Plc

    The UK’s 50 Most Disruptive Companies Revealed

    After receiving applications from a wide range of early stage and more established companies from across industries, the initial list was whittled down to 100 by D/SRUPTION. The list was then submitted to an expert judging

    Frontier IP Group Plc

    Artificial intelligence in the world of drug discovery

    Charlotte Walker-Osborn, a Partner and Head of Technology Sector (International) at global law-firm Eversheds Sutherland and a legal expert in technology law, explains some of the challenges and potential future of artificial intelligence (AI) in the

    Frontier IP Group Plc

    11 diseases which can cause infection

    Illnesses that can pass from animals to humans are known as zoonotic. They’re surprisingly common: More than six out of every 10 known infectious diseases in people are actually contracted from animals, according to the CDC.