VIVAC forskargrupp: Vacciner och immunterapier mot virus och cancer – Matti Sällberg

Vår forskning är inriktad på grundforskning men också på utveckling av vacciner och nya immunterapier mot virussjukdomar och cancer.

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Gruppfoto av VIVAC forskargrupp: Vacciner och immunterapier mot virus och cancer.

Publikationer

Utvalda publikationer

Finansiering

Forskningsbidrag

  • Swedish Research Council
    1 December 2022 - 30 November 2027
    The proposed doctoral program in advanced therapies (DPAT) focuses on preclinical development and clinical adoption of advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP), a new class of drugs based on cells, genes or engineered tissues with great potential to effectively treat, or cure, a wide range of diseases. Today, patient access to ATMPs is limited by a lack of personnel with the knowledge of the field needed for these drugs to become routine clinical practice. A coordinated effort to ensure education of health care professionals is needed.DPAT targets teachers within programs relevant to the topic
    medicine and dentistry, nursing, pharmacy and biomedical analyst education. The curriculum builds on the core doctoral training programs, complemented by newly co-developed courses and education activities about the ATMP development chain from research, via translation to implementation in health care, including manufacturing, quality control, regulatory and legal aspects, health economics, ethics, and entrepreneurship.DPAT is a national initiative by five Swedish universities, coordinated by Lund University. The universities contribute with their areas of strength and excellent research milieus within ATMP, as well as collaboration with internationally leading institutions in Europe and the US.By educating the teachers and connecting them closer to research, the doctoral program will significantly strengthen Sweden’s competence in this important field of tomorrows Health Care.
  • Genetic Vaccines and Immune-Based Therapies to Prevent Cancer Caused by Chronic Hepatitis B Virus and Hepatitis D Virus Infections: New Therapies and Models
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2018
    Chronic infections caused by hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis D virus (HDV) are a leading cause of liver cancer. For chronic HBV, there is currently a lifelong treatment that suppresses the viral proliferation but does not penalize the infection. For HDV, there is only 24 months of interferon treatment which only cures about 25%. Thus, there is a great need for new treatments for HBV and HDV. We intend to develop new immunological treatments for these infections. We are working on developing a treating vaccine against chronic HBV and HDV infection. This is supposed to be an addition to today's treatment. We start with a combination vaccine against HBV and HDV as a treatment for chronic HBV infection. In the studies that have begun, we have been able to show that the vaccine activates a T cell response to HBV and HDV as well as antibodies that prevent HBV / HDV from infecting new cells, so-called neutralizing antibodies. We intend to identify the best of 10 different vaccine candidates that are then developed for clinical trials in humans. In parallel with this, we also develop more experimental treatment principles. We hope that our research will lead to the treatment of chronic HBV and HDV infections being improved so that we can reduce the risk of developing cancer and serious liver damage. We believe that the vaccine we develop can give the infected control over the infection by reducing the number of cells that are infected and knocking out the cells already infected. If we succeed, this can lead to reduced suffering and reduced healthcare costs.
  • Genetic Vaccines and Immune-Based Therapies to Prevent Cancer Caused by Chronic Hepatitis B Virus and Hepatitis D Virus Infections: New Therapies and Models
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2017
    Chronic infections caused by hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis D virus (HDV) are a leading cause of liver cancer. For chronic HBV, there is currently a lifelong treatment that suppresses the viral proliferation but does not penalize the infection. For HDV, there is only 24 months of interferon treatment which only cures about 25%. Thus, there is a great need for new treatments for HBV and HDV. We intend to develop new immunological treatments for these infections. We are working on developing a treating vaccine against chronic HBV and HDV infection. This is supposed to be an addition to today's treatment. We start with a combination vaccine against HBV and HDV as a treatment for chronic HBV infection. In the studies that have begun, we have been able to show that the vaccine activates a T cell response to HBV and HDV as well as antibodies that prevent HBV / HDV from infecting new cells, so-called neutralizing antibodies. We intend to identify the best of 10 different vaccine candidates that are then developed for clinical trials in humans. In parallel with this, we also develop more experimental treatment principles. We hope that our research will lead to the treatment of chronic HBV and HDV infections being improved so that we can reduce the risk of developing cancer and serious liver damage. We believe that the vaccine we develop can give the infected control over the infection by reducing the number of cells that are infected and knocking out the cells already infected. If we succeed, this can lead to reduced suffering and reduced healthcare costs.
  • Vaccine and immunotherapies to prevent liver cancer caused by hepatitis B and D virus
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2015
    Co-infections in the liver caused by hepatitis B and D virus (HBV / HDV) often have a serious course. HDV can only multiply in liver cells that are already infected with HBV. HBV today requires lifelong treatment, but against HDV there is no good treatment. Thus, there is a great need to develop new treatments for HBV and HDV. This project focuses on developing new treatments for HBV and HDV. We have previously developed this type of treatment for hepatitis C and therefore believe that we have very good conditions for doing this also against HBV and HDV. We will produce so-called genetic vaccines, and gene therapy, to produce T cells that selectively recognize and kill liver cells infected with HBV or HDV. This makes HBV infected that they can hopefully end their lifelong treatment with antivirals as the body's own immune system controls viruses. For HDV, we hope that the infection will heal completely, or prevent it from occurring. To be able to do this in a safe and good way, attempts must be made in mouse models. We will develop a new mouse model that is more similar to human as the mouse will have human liver cells. We hope, of course, that we will be able to develop effective treatments for HBV and HDV to reduce, or even eliminate, the risk of liver cancer caused by these viruses. There are studies showing that both HBV and HDV can be controlled with a good T cell response. Thus, our goal is to be able to treat patients with chronic HBV and / or HDV in a rather near future with antigen activation of T cells with vaccine, or redirection of T cells via gene therapy. Our treating vaccine against HBV is today close to clinic testing. We think we can soon be in the same position for HDV.

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