PhD student: Yiwu Zheng
Supervisors: Susanne Jacobsen (DTU), Henning Løwenstein, and Jørgen Nedergaard Larsen
Collaborator: ALK-Abelló A/S
Vaccine is produced by maximum adsorption of antigens onto adjuvants. Aluminium-containing adjuvants are the only immunologic adjuvants used in human vaccines licensed in the United States, and are present in many veterinary vaccines. Although aluminium-containing adjuvants have been used for many years to enhance, accelerate and prolong the specific immune response towards the desired response to vaccine antigens, the mechanism by which adjuvant can enhance the immune response and/or exert their activities is still not clear. The structures of antigens when it is adsorbed onto adjuvants and when it is released from it have not well investigated. However all this knowledge is important for allergen-specific immunotherapy.
The study focuses on the structures of model antigens when they are adsorbed onto aluminium hydroxide and when they are subsequently released. The mechanism of ACA is also discussed. The stability of vaccine antigen is also investigated during storage and temperature abuse. And a fast, non-destructive method is introduced for determining the residual moisture content and classification of lyophilized allergy vaccines.
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