Vaccine delivery: Characterization of vaccine delivery and metabolic impact investigation using secondary ion mass spectroscopy

The use of loaded nanoparticles to express prophylactic antigens and therapeutic proteins has initiated a new generation of biotechnology in healthcare using non-viral delivery vehicles to safely and potently deliver the exogenous genetic payloads (e.g. to combat infectious diseases of a zoonotic origin). Effective delivery of vaccines must negotiate a series of physiological and biological barriers for which our understanding is presently limited. This project aspires to address these limitations using state of the art characterisation techniques such as mass spectrometry imaging.

Synthetic nanoparticles are delivery vehicles that have unique components that are not endogenously present in cells. These components will be used to follow the delivery vehicle and provide a chemical "fingerprint" for the nanoparticle when using characterization techniques such as secondary ion mass spectrometry. This will be used in this project to improve our capacity to interrogate the physiological environments by mapping the chemical fingerprint of the delivery vehicle and metabolic impact of exogenous vaccine mechanisms. Working closely with GSK, the results achieved in this project will provide key mechanistic evidence to improve the design of vaccine and delivery vehicles by providing insight regarding how delivery occurs and influences the cellular environment.