Subventions et des contributions :

Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier (2017-2018 à 2018-2019).

Viruses engineered to express antigens to promote a protective immune response against a particular pathogenx000D
(vaccine), or to deliver a therapeutic gene (gene therapy) or to treat cancer (oncolytic virotherapy) are essentialx000D
tools used in the prevention and treatment of human and animal disease. However, a considerable impedimentx000D
to the production of viruses as vaccines or therapeutic agents is the cost of manufacturing. The goal of thisx000D
project is to test whether Phytoglycogen nanoparticle (PhG) technology from Mirexus can be used as a cellx000D
culture additive to dramatically increase viral vaccine vector production. Mirexus is a leadingx000D
bio-nanomaterials company based in Ontario that produces phytoglycogen nanoparticles with valuablex000D
performance characteristics that are currently leveraged across a wide variety of personal care applications.x000D
While traditionally PhG has been marketed to the cosmetic and food industries, Mirexus is rapidly developingx000D
PhG-based technologies for the biomedical and pharmaceutical industries. Preliminary results indicate that ax000D
proprietary modification of PhG (immune-modulating-PhG, IM-PhG) enhances in vitro virus production andx000D
this effect is conserved between cell lines derived from fish to humans and both aquatic and mammalianx000D
viruses, including a 1000-fold enhancement of influenza virus production. To grow their business and expandx000D
their applications platform, Mirexus is seeking to investigate whether IM-PhG can be used as a cell culturex000D
additive to boost production of viral vaccines. Although Mirexus has the expertise to synthesize and modify thex000D
PhG, they do not have the infrastructure (e.g. BSL 2 laboratory, access to viruses) or the virology expertisex000D
necessary to conduct these experiments. The purpose of this Engage grant is to facilitate collaboration betweenx000D
Mirexus and an academic virology lab that can evaluate whether the above mentioned enhancing effect extendsx000D
to the production of Newcastle Disease Virus, an industrially important vaccine vector for animal health, inx000D
mammalian cells and embryonated eggs. As Mirexus is a Canadian company, expansion of its applicationsx000D
platform should lead to increased demand for this patented technology and more high tech jobs for Canadians.