Research hub launches to drive vaccine development

UCL is leading a new a vaccine research hub, launching today, to affect radical change in the development and manufacturing of vaccines, with the University of Oxford. The Future Vaccine Manufacturing Research Hub (Vax-Hub) has been awarded almost seven million pounds of UK aid funding via the Department of Health and Social Care, which will be managed by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). It will bring together academia, industry and policy makers and will work to improve responses to outbreaks of pandemics such as Swine Flu and Ebola. The multidisciplinary team assembled at the Hub will work to address five major challenges facing vaccine manufacturing and deployment: Dr Tarit Mukhopadhyay (UCL Biochemical Engineering) said: "Vaccines are the most successful public health initiative of the 20th century. Today, vaccine supply and affordability are the two key issues that limit our ability to eradicate disease, reach immunisation goals and respond to epidemics. "Many vaccines use manufacturing processes that are 50-60 years old and have resulted in supply interruptions in the UK and developing nations. This investment will create tools and novel manufacturing technologies that will modernise vaccine manufacturing processes that were established in the last century, such that these life-saving medicines are available to all, irrespective of economic circumstance." Professor Philip Nelson (EPSRC Executive Chair) said: "According to the UN, last year vaccines saved the lives of up to three million children.