$300,000 CIHR grant awarded for VLP study

Montreal, QC – The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) have awarded a $300,000 grant for research focusing on the nature of the immune response induced by the action mechanisms of plant-made Virus-Like Particles (VLP) to Dr Louis Vezina, chief scientific officer of Medicago and to Dr Brian Ward and Dr Ciriaco Piccirillo of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI MUHC) and McGill University.

“Receiving this government grant further acknowledges the scientific merit of our joint research efforts with McGill in the development of leading plant-based VLP vaccines,” said Andy Sheldon, president and chief executive officer of Medicago. “A deeper understanding of all potential benefits of the immune response generated by our VLPs will allow us to further differentiate and better position our product on the market. We believe our VLP vaccines will be the preferred option to increase the speed of a public health response in the event of a pandemic outbreak as our VLP plant-based manufacturing process is very efficient with a relatively low capital cost.”

“VLPs are among the most promising technologies to produce the next generation of vaccines. The technical simplicity and low cost of VLP production in plants add great value to this delivery system as it is the first platform technology with a realistic potential to address the needs of the developing world for low cost vaccines,” said Brian Ward, associate director of the Research Institute at the MUHC (Fundamental Science). “I am delighted that we have secured this grant from CIHR as a sophisticated understanding of how these vaccines interact with the immune system is of considerable importance.”

Dr Brian Ward is associate director of the Research Institute at the MUHC (Fundamental Science), co-director of the MUHC Vaccine Evaluation Centre and also a professor in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University. Dr Ciriaco Piccirillo is Canada Research chair, principal investigator of the Laboratory of Immuno-regulation, director of the FOCIS Center of Excellence, director of the Immune Phenotyping Platform at the RI MUHC and associate professor of microbiology and immunology at McGill University.

Reported by julie.robert@muhc.mcgill.ca