The Viral Vectors and Vaccines Bioprocessing Group, led by Bioengineering Professor Amine Kamen, develops cu卢tting-edge bioprocessing technologies and techniques, to accelerate the development of and increase access to life-saving medicines and vaccines, improving health and quality of life for people globally.
Professor Kamen, a Canada Research Chair in Bioprocessing of Viral Vaccines, and Professor in the Department of Bioengineering, leads an interdisciplinary group that includes researchers from around the world with expertise across such fields as biotechnology, chemical engineering, microbiology, immunology, cell therapy, artificial intelligence and bioinformatics.
鈥淧rofessor Kamen is a visionary, who has a deep and broad understanding of where the field is going,鈥� says Sascha Kiesslich, who recently completed a Ph.D. at 平特五不中 in biological and biomedical engineering. Professor Kamen has strong connections with industry, government and university partners and graduate students get the perfect training before going into the job market.鈥�
Kiesslich worked on a project to develop a more efficient and cost-effective manufacturing process for an Ebola vaccine candidate originally developed in Canada. African countries continue to experience severe Ebola disease outbreaks and this vaccine uses a recombinant Vesicular Stomatis Virus (rVSV)-based vector to protect against the disease. Kiesslich developed an efficient, scalable process for producing large quantities of Ebola vaccine in the widely used Vero cell line in bioreactors rather than the current roller bottle manufacturing process. 鈥淚mproving production methods is super important to reduce costs and enable the vaccine to be made in smaller facilities in African countries where it is most needed,鈥� Kiesslich says. He also used this innovative manufacturing process to efficiently produce similar rVSV vectors for novel HIV vaccine and COVID-19 vaccine candidates in Vero cells in bioreactors. 鈥淲e demonstrated that the rVSV vaccine platform can be modified to be used as a vaccine for many different diseases and ultimately very economical manufacturing,鈥� he observes, noting that scalable, low-cost manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines is urgently needed to meet the huge unmet demand in many developing countries.
鈥淎ll the research in our lab has a practical application for the health and well-being of people,鈥� says Omar Farnos Villar, a research associate from Cuba. 鈥淏y continually improving bioprocesses for making viral vectors and vaccines, we can help to make cell therapies, gene therapies and vaccines more a ordable and available to people around the world.鈥�
Farnos is developing an improved vaccine against Newcastle Disease (ND), a critical threat to poultry in sub-Saharan Africa, where countries have an average of 10 outbreaks per year, with a major impact on local economies and food security. This innovative vaccine, which uses a non-replicating adenovirus vector to deliver an antigen against ND, can be produced much more efficiently using the group鈥檚 cell culture manufacturing platform rather than traditional egg-based production.
鈥淥ur vaccine is safer, superior and more cost-effective than the live ND vaccines currently produced in embryonic chicken eggs, which are expensive and imported from Europe. The transfer of our technology to the National Veterinary Institute (NVI) in Ethiopia can be expected to deliver cost-effective vaccine candidates against circulating ND viral strains, and be adapted to respond to other emerging avian viral threats to poultry in African countries,鈥� says Farnos.
Alina Venereo-Sanchez, a former 平特五不中 postdoctoral fellow from Cuba, launched the company VVector Bio to commercialize a unique process for high-yield, scalable biomanufacturing of viral vectors used in cell and gene therapies and vaccines. This leading-edge technology was developed in Kamen鈥檚 lab. VVector Bio bridges the gap between research and the clinic by helping to meet the surging demand for large quantities of high-quality viral vectors for use in pre-clinical experiments and clinical trials of new cell and gene therapies. A key goal is to reduce high treatment costs. Cell therapy for leukemia costs about $500,000 USD per patient and gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy, a leading genetic cause of infant deaths, is over $2 million USD for a single dose.
鈥淭he viral vector manufacturing market is expected to reach $815.8 million USD by 2023 and there are now more than 1,750 cell and gene therapy products in the pipeline for clinical approval that use viral vectors,鈥� says Venereo-Sanchez. 鈥淲ith our unique manufacturing process and proprietary methods, VVector can produce high quality viral vectors faster to accelerate the translation of research into new treatments and help make therapies more affordable.鈥�
That is the global health challenge being undertaken by the Viral Vectors and Vaccines Bioprocessing Group: to transform global healthcare by developing technologies and techniques to produce a wide range of viral vectors and vaccines faster, on a larger scale, and at a lower cost.
This article was originally published in the Faculty of Engineering Dean's Report Fall 2021