Axis Genetics plc, Cambridge, UK, will collaborate with a US research team, led by Dr Yasmin Thanavala of Roswell Park Cancer Institute, to advance the development of the first Edible Plant Vaccine to protect against hepatitis B virus infection.

The four-year project will evaluate the immune response in animals to Edible Plant Vaccine potatoes engineered to contain hepatitis B antigens. This builds on research conducted jointly by Roswell Park Cancer Institute of Buffalo, New York and the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) of Ithaca, New York, demonstrating that potatoes expressing the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), plus adjuvant, fed to mice gave HBsAg specific antibodies in serum and HBsAg specific
IgA antibodies in mucosal secretions. In June 1998, Axis Genetics licensed Edible Plant Vaccine technology from the BTI.

Also under the agreement with Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Axis Genetics has an exclusive option to an exclusive license to existing and joint inventions in the field of hepatitis B Edible Plant Vaccines.

In an accompanying announcement, it was reported that Axis Genetics has commissioned American Ag-Tec International Ltd to manufacture hepatitis B Edible Plant Vaccine potatoes in preparation for clinical trials due to begin during 1999, and for ongoing research.

One person in twenty worldwide is a carrier of the hepatitis B virus, a leading cause of liver cancer. Traditional vaccines have made minimal impact on the incidence of hepatitis B. Axis Genetics is developing a new generation of vaccines, Edible Plant Vaccines, which can be administered orally to target both mucosal and systemic immune responses. Most conventional vaccines stimulate only systemic immunity.

Roswell Park Cancer Institute is the world’s first and one of the largest cancer centres and has led the battle against cancer for nearly a century. It is one of only 35 centres in the United States to hold the National Cancer Center designation of ‘comprehensive cancer center’.

Dr Thanavala is a cancer research scientist in the Department of Immunology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and a research professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo. The major focus of her laboratory is the development of vaccines for human infectious diseases,
with particular emphasis on hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae.

Axis Genetics is a private company based in Cambridge, UK, developing vaccines from plants. The company is working with the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Ithaca, New York, to develop Edible Plant Vaccines for the prevention of hepatitis B, enterotoxigenic E. coli travellers’ diarrhoea, and Norwalk virus infections. Using its proprietary chimaeric virus particle technology EPICOAT , Axis is developing vaccines for cancer, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus infections. Visit the Axis Genetics website at www.axisgenetics.co.uk

Note: Dr Thanavala was one of five women to receive the New York State Governor’s Award for Excellence in Health Advocacy in the USA last year. She received her PhD in immunology from the University of London and has been a senior scientist at Roswell Park since 1985. Her research in the development of new vaccines for infectious diseases has won many awards.

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