Nils/Mats, if you are referring to the short talk given by the ABCF Fellow, she was invited by Lindiwe as an example of a student who presented their research project in manner that was easy to understand. If the student gave the impression or said that an ECF subunit vaccine was around the corner I apologize on her behalf and put it down to youthful exuberance. The Board does not expect otherwise!

Yes, I am also wondering about the Board Dinner celebration. Did we mislead the ILRI Board?

Very disappointed, at the board dinner we were promised a sub-unit vaccine by October and have been planning corresponding impact assessments.

Hi Addis. I want to ensure that there is no confusion in the use of the term “delivery system”. What Lucilla was referring to means the method/s we use to vaccinate cattle, i.e., compare recombinant protein with adjuvant versus a viral vectored vaccine to find the best one that works. She was not using the term in the context of a “development” activity where the concern is how is the vaccine delivered and used at the farm level. This is where ASSP and other programs have to guide us.

GALVmed’s focus is on taking products from proof-of-concept (POC) to commercialization. Our focus is on getting to POC but we are very aware of the need to work with GALVmed and similar entities to accelerate product development in the discovery to delivery continuum. We do collaborate with GALVmed on ECF and CBPP and are looking to link up on other diseases.

I agree that what is mentioned may be very important but there is quite a risk associated with the discovery/development of an ECF subunit vaccine . The discovery process also takes quite a long time. If we don’t succeed at the discovery level we would waste a lot of efforts and resources on suitable delivery systems, knowledge management and capacity bulding – if there isn’t a vaccine. So I think it is a bit to early to plan for that.

I cannot see who the author is (there is only written ADDIS)
No, we don’t have the expertise for the downstream processes of development/production of a subunit vaccine. At that point we would hook up with a company/Institute which have these facilities/expertise. But we are fully capable of the upstream discovery process, so if that is successful we can work on a fruitful collaboration for the downstream processes.

I think we should think of the different projects as being part of a portfolio where we should aim at both getting short term products and also longer term ones if they are important (like the subunit ECF vaccine). It is a balance of not having too many of the difficult ones …if we want to get known as a vaccine department who are not only doing research but also products

Hi Isabelle
Yes it will take longer time than 4 years….and OH, I meant METRICS data..ups. Data about economical importance of the disease etc. I agree that work on the dissemination pathway from Tanzania will be important . That can most probably feed into dissimination of a new vaccine.

Hi Karen , BoLA is the bovine MHC – if that helps? It is tissue type antigens which presents pieces of foreign proteins (after e.g. an infection) on the surface of the cells allowing killer cells to be generated in the body. These killer cells can then kill infected cells.