New Publication On Abera’s Vaccine Platform in the Journal Microbial Cell Factories

Abera Bioscience AB (“Abera” or “the Company”) continues to improve its vaccine platform in collaboration with researchers at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. An article was recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Microbial Cell Factories by researchers Trang H. Phan, Coen Kuijl and Peter van Ulsen of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in collaboration with Abera’s Dung T. Huynh, Wouter S.P. Jong and Joen Luirink. The authors identified ways to improve the ability to express complex proteins at the surface of bacterial cells using in Abera’s display technology.

Abera Bioscience is a biotech company that develops vaccine candidates based on its patented vaccine delivery platforms in which disease-specific antigens can be displayed at the surface of bacteria and derived Outer Membrane Vesicles (OMVs). Development and improvement of Abera’s platforms takes place continuously in collaboration with academic researchers. This has now resulted in new methodology that allows the transportation of more complex proteins or antigens to the bacterial cell surface, opening up new application areas for Abera’s display technology.

Simply put, Abera’s display technology involves the expression of a fusion between an antigen and a so-called autotransporter in bacterial cells. Abera’s autotransporter has the ability to mediate its own transport through the cell envelope of the bacterium and remain attached to the bacterial surface, thereby allowing display of the antigen it is fused to. The system has some limitations in the complexity of the antigens that can be handled during export. The authors of the article have now shown that by co-expression of the so-called Bam complex antigens and other proteins with more complex structures can be displayed.

“We are happy to collaborate with such eminent researchers and to have a close relationship with academic research. This discovery is important from a molecular biological perspective and for us as a company it creates opportunities to develop vaccine candidates within new application areas. We have recently seen an increased interest in collaborating with us and developing vaccine candidates against new indications, which is very exciting”, says Maria Alriksson, CEO of Abera Bioscience.