Many HIV vaccine concepts and several efficacy trials have been conducted in the prophylactic and therapeutic fields with limited success. There is an urgent need to develop better vaccines and tools predictive of immunogenicity and of correlates of protection at early stage of vaccine development to mitigate the risks of failure. To address these complex and challenging scientific issues, the European HIV Vaccine Alliance (EHVA) program will develop a Multidisciplinary Vaccine Platform (MVP) in the fields of prophylactic and therapeutic HIV vaccines. The Specific Objectives of the MVP are to build up: 1.Discovery Platform with the goal of generating novel vaccine candidates inducing potent neutralizing and non-neutralizing antibody responses and T-cell responses, 2. Immune Profiling Platform with the goal of ranking novel and existing (benchmark) vaccine candidates on the basis of the immune profile, 3. Data Management/Integration/Down-Selection Platform, with the goal of providing statistical tools for the analysis and interpretation of complex data and algorithms for the efficient selection of vaccines, and 4. Clinical Trials Platform with the goal of accelerating the clinical development of novel vaccines and the early prediction of vaccine failure. EHVA project has developed a global and innovative strategy which includes: a) the multidisciplinary expertise involving immunologists, virologists, structural biology experts, statisticians and computational scientists and clinicians; b) the most innovative technologies to profile immune response and virus reservoir; c) the access to large cohort studies bringing together top European clinical scientists/centres in the fields of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines, d) the access to a panel of experimental HIV vaccines under clinical development that will be used as benchmark, and e) the liaison to a number of African leading scientists/programs which will foster the testing of future EHVA vaccines through EDCTP

Advanced therapies, and in particular gene therapies, hold great potential for treating diseases for which few options exist. Efficient gene transfer is inherently and intransigently linked to vector efficacy. Partially due to the lack of suitable delivery systems for particular applications, the success of too many gene therapies is limited. Over the last two decades, immense progress has been made in the development of viral vectors. Importantly, this progress has also identified vector characteristics and biological factors that decrease efficacy. While limited efficacy is relevant for all vector platforms, it is more pressing in the case of adenoviruses because they have so much potential. In some cases, host responses and imperfect targeting have stunted adenovirus vector development for therapies that require long-term transgene expression. Our multi-faceted consortium proposes an innovative approach to overcome these limitations and to construct a pathway for developing improved vectors for clinical gene transfer. By synergising French, Dutch, British, Spanish and Swedish expertise in structural biology, receptor engagement, neurobiology, cardiobiology, and bioprocessing, we will create in silico designed intelligent adenovirus vectors (iAds). Our disruptive concept abandons the classical approach of developing vectors from naturally occurring adenoviruses. Instead, a proprietorial adenovirus type will be serially stripped of unwanted elements to create a bank of iAds, which will then be engineered for heart- and brain-specific targeting. Our consortium blends academic ingenuity and SME/pharma manufacturing that will allow seamless clinical translation. With the support of the EIC Programme, our ground-breaking approach should revolutionise gene transfer and generate solutions in areas of unmet medical need via a platform that exploits the full potential of viral vectors.

The overall aim of EBOVAC3 is to support an essential part of remaining clinical and manufacturing activities required for licensure in the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) of a candidate heterologous prime-boost prophylactic vaccine regimen against Ebola virus disease that is under development at Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V. The intended target indication is defined as: “A prime-boost regimen with Ad26.ZEBOV as prime vaccine and MVA-BN®-Filo as boost vaccine indicated for the prevention of Ebola virus disease (EVD) caused by EBOV of the Zaire ebolavirus species in adults and elderly (aged ≥65 years), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected adults, and children aged ≥1 year.”

A highly effective malaria vaccine against Plasmodium falciparum should help prevent half a million deaths from malaria each year. New vaccine technologies and antigen discovery approaches now make accelerated design and development of a highly effective multi-antigen multi-stage subunit vaccine feasible. Leading malariologists, vaccine researchers and product developers will here collaborate in an exciting programme of antigen discovery science linked to rapid clinical development of new vaccine candidates. Our approach tackles the toughest problems in malaria vaccine design: choice of the best antigens, attaining high immunogenicity, avoiding polymorphic antigens and increasing the durability of vaccine immunogenicity and efficacy. We take advantage of several recent advances in vaccinology and adopt some very new technologies: sequencing malaria peptides eluted from the HLA molecules, parasites expressing multiple transgenes, multi-antigen virus-like particles constructed with new bonding technologies, delayed release microcapsules, and liver-targeted immunisation with vaccine vectors. We enhance our chances of success by using a multi-stage multi-antigen approach, by optimising the magnitude and durability of well-characterised immune responses to key antigens, and using stringent infectious challenges and functional assays as established criteria for progression at each stage. The consortium comprises many of the foremost researchers in this field in Europe with leading groups in the USA, Australia and Africa. We link to EDCTP programmes and harmonise our timeline to fit with the recent roadmaps for malaria vaccine development. We include a major pharma partner and several excellent European biotech companies helping enhance Europe’s leading position in the commercial development of vaccines. This ambitious and exciting programme should have a high chance of success in tackling the major global health problem posed by malaria.