VaxNewMo is working on development of the next generation of conjugate vaccines against encapsulated bacteria using the firm's proprietary conjugating enzyme technology. Conjugate vaccines have been employed to eliminate bacterial infections for decades and are considered some of the most efficacious vaccines as they are able to elicit immunological memory in all age groups, including, children two years of age and younger. Traditionally conjugate vaccine production has been performed using multiple rounds of purification and chemical cross-linking to covalently conjugate a bacterial polysaccharide to a protein carrier. This process is notoriously slow, complex, and not conducive for all bacterial polysaccharides. To bypass this labor intensive chemical process, VaxNewMo exploits the protein glycosylation systems of bacteria to generate "bioconjugate" vaccines using the laboratory safe Escherichia coli. Currently, VaxNewMo is developing the next generation of glycoengineered bioconjugate vaccines against pneumococcal pneumonia. The firm's glycoengineering strategy streamlines the production of conjugate vaccines enabling VaxNewMo to produce a more comprehensive pneumococcal conjugate vaccine with more serotype coverage. The firm's conjugating enzyme technology is not limited to only pneumococcal polysaccharides, potentially therefore opening the door for novel bioconjugate vaccines against some of the world's most dangerous bacterial pathogens.
