BactiVax Coordinator Assoc. Prof. Siobhán McClean signs option agreement to licence a vaccine for melioidosis

Associate Professor Siobhán McClean and her research group at University College Dublin.

Poolbeg Pharma, a clinical stage infectious disease pharmaceutical company, has signed an option agreement to license MelioVac with University College Dublin, a vaccine for melioidosis invented by Associate Professor Siobhán McClean through NovaUCD.

Melioidosis, also known as Whitmore’s disease, is an infectious disease that can infect humans or animals. It is caused by a Gram-negative bacterium called Burkholderia pseudomallei, that lives in soil and water in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The highest incidence of infection is in Southeast Asia, India and Australia, but it is estimated that climate changes will increase incidence of melioidosis in non-endemic areas.

Infection can cause a variety of symptoms, from mild ones, such as fever, cough, localised pain or swelling, to severe symptoms such as pneumonia, brain inflammation or severe sepsis with multiple organ abscesses (source CDC). Although healthy individuals can get melioidosis, underlying medical conditions such as diabetes, liver, renal or chronic lung diseases may increase the risk of disease.

A study published by Nature Microbiology in 2016 estimated 165,000 human melioidosis cases per year worldwide, of which 89,000 are fatal (over 50% mortality rate). This is because melioidosis is not only antibiotic resistant, but also difficult to diagnose, partly due to its unspecific symptoms (often mistaken for tuberculosis or pneumonia) and also because of the inadequacy of conventional bacterial identification methods. Currently, there is no approved vaccine for melioidosis.

Under the agreement, Poolbeg Pharma will aid the development of MelioVac as well as five other potential vaccine candidates discovered by Assoc. Prof. McClean and her team at UCD Conway Institute, for the duration of the deal, prior to signing a licence agreement. The other potential vaccine candidates include those for Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Burkholderia cepacia complex, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii.

Read more about this in UCD’s press release and in The Irish Times.

 

Recent tweets from BactiVax

Check us out on Instagram too

Congratulations to #BactiVax researchers @irenejm6, @maite_s96 and Assoc. Prof. Siobhán McClean on their recently published review on Pseudomonas aeruginosa #vaccine development! 🦠 P. aeruginosa is an antibiotic-resistant, hospital-acquired pathogen that can cause severe and difficult to treat infections. Link to open access paper here & in bio: https://t.co/l1y9Ugh5Sj?amp=1
BactiVax - Siobhán McClean