ETH Zurich Professor Peter Seeberger was awarded the 2007 Körber Prize for Science worth Euros 750,000 euros for his vaccines research.
The Körber Prize, one of the most prestigious German science awards recognises European scientists for applied and pioneering research. This year’s award honors chemist Seeberger for his research in the synthesis of complex sugars. Specifically, the Körber Foundation, located in Hamburg, Germany, is honouring Seeberger for the development of device for automatically synthesising carbohydrates, thereby facilitating the production of novel synthetic sugar-based vaccines.
Each cell in the body is surrounded by an extra-cellular matrix, the glycans, made up of polysaccharide chains and branched sugars. Cells use the glycans to recognise one another and to exchange signalling molecules. In addition, bacteria, viruses and fungi home in on the glycans to locate specific cells in the body in order to attack them. Cancer-producing helicobacter bacteria attach themselves to the glycans in the gastric mucous membrane, while flu viruses bind to the glycans on the lungs.
To develop a carbohydrate-based vaccine, researchers must first determine which glycans are typical for the disease of interest. These are extracted, or produced chemically, and then connected to a harmless protein. This conjugate vaccine is injected into the recipient. The immune system develops antibodies to these glycans, which will provide protection when a natural pathogen later enters the body.
Using the automated oligosaccharide synthesiser, known as the ‘sugar machine’ that he developed, Professor Seeberger and his colleagues have succeeded not only in chemically producing glycans of pathogens, but also in developing vaccine candidates against malaria, leishmaniasis, AIDs, anthrax and tuberculosis.
In the past, producing a single complex sugar meant months or years of laboratory work. With the ‘sugar machine’ production time is reduced to less than one day, thus significantly speeding up basic research, and the development of new diagnostic tools and drugs.
The malaria vaccine candidate is most advanced of the vaccines currently being tested. Animals tests have demonstrated the vaccine’s effectiveness. First tests on humans will be carried out in 2008.
The Körber Prize, one of the most prestigious German science awards recognises European scientists for applied and pioneering research. This year’s award honors chemist Seeberger for his research in the synthesis of complex sugars. Specifically, the Körber Foundation, located in Hamburg, Germany, is honouring Seeberger for the development of device for automatically synthesising carbohydrates, thereby facilitating the production of novel synthetic sugar-based vaccines.
Each cell in the body is surrounded by an extra-cellular matrix, the glycans, made up of polysaccharide chains and branched sugars. Cells use the glycans to recognise one another and to exchange signalling molecules. In addition, bacteria, viruses and fungi home in on the glycans to locate specific cells in the body in order to attack them. Cancer-producing helicobacter bacteria attach themselves to the glycans in the gastric mucous membrane, while flu viruses bind to the glycans on the lungs.
To develop a carbohydrate-based vaccine, researchers must first determine which glycans are typical for the disease of interest. These are extracted, or produced chemically, and then connected to a harmless protein. This conjugate vaccine is injected into the recipient. The immune system develops antibodies to these glycans, which will provide protection when a natural pathogen later enters the body.
Using the automated oligosaccharide synthesiser, known as the ‘sugar machine’ that he developed, Professor Seeberger and his colleagues have succeeded not only in chemically producing glycans of pathogens, but also in developing vaccine candidates against malaria, leishmaniasis, AIDs, anthrax and tuberculosis.
In the past, producing a single complex sugar meant months or years of laboratory work. With the ‘sugar machine’ production time is reduced to less than one day, thus significantly speeding up basic research, and the development of new diagnostic tools and drugs.
The malaria vaccine candidate is most advanced of the vaccines currently being tested. Animals tests have demonstrated the vaccine’s effectiveness. First tests on humans will be carried out in 2008.
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