Professor Brendan Wren’s research at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine focuses on the molecular characterisation of bacterial virulence factors. In collaboration with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Professor Wren led the project to sequence the genome of the food poisoning agent Campylobacter jejuni that, for the first time, revealed a bacterial apparatus for modifying proteins by the addition of sugar molecules – an N-linked glycosylation system.

Proteins modified in this way (glycoproteins) are involved in many biological processes, and the most efficacious vaccines are often glycoconjugates. Production of glycoconjugate vaccines traditionally requires a multistep coupling process that is technically demanding and expensive.

Work in Professor Wren's laboratory has enabled the development of an approach termed 'protein glycan coupling technology', in which glycoconjugate vaccines are produced by bacterial clones. This system can produce a pure and inexhaustible supply of vaccines. This technique has already been used to develop a new generation of affordable glycoconjugate vaccines, which have been shown to be protective in model infection systems and include Shigella and Francisella conjugate vaccines. Novel combination vaccines that promise to protect against multiple human and animal diseases at low cost are currently in development using this system. This technology has been used to construct recombinant glycoconjugate vaccines against Streptococcus pneumonia, MRSA, Burkholderia pseudomallei and Franscisella species.

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