Vaccines R&D & Vaccination

Didier Betbeder has 25 years’ experience in drug delivery using colloids, ranging from basic research to clinical studies. He is working with the World Health Organisation; he obtained his PhD in 1988 on drug targeting to treat sleeping sickness, before spending two years as a Post-doctoral fellow at the University of Warwick (England). He was then engaged by BioEurope, a company specialised in biocatalysis, before joining Research Director at Biovector Therapeutics (France) from 1992-2001. He is Professor at the University of Artois and Lille 2 since 2001. He developed from research to clinical development a technology based on polysaccharide nanoparticles. He conducted five clinical trials. Nasal flu vaccine formulations have been clinically trailed with BioChem Pharma (Canada) and SmithKline Beecham (Belgium). His researches are focusing on studying the mechanisms implied in nanoparticles interactions within mucosa. He has extensive experience in Nanomedicine, over 110 international publications and 23 patents to his name. He is the Founder of Vaxinano a company who is developing vaccines for human and animal health (www.vaxinano.com)

Nanoparticles can act as adjuvant as they are able to deliver antigens to immune cells, therefore increasing their immunogenicity. A better knowledge of the mechanisms of interaction with cells and the biological fluids is necessary to fully understand their potential as delivery systems. We will describe the head to head comparison of nanoparticles generally used in vaccines in term of protein delivery within airway mucosa cells in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore after nasal administration, we will present the development of a vaccine against Toxoplasma gondii infection in rodents, ships and primates. The development of a universal vaccine using lipidated polysaccharide nanoparticles will also be presented.