Delphi Genetics: The New DNAVAC Research Project Targets the Removal of Antibiotics in Veterinary DNA-Vaccine Development and Production (Using the Staby® Technology)

CHARLEROI, Belgium - Monday, January 30th 2012 [ME NewsWire]

(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Belgian Biotech Company Delphi Genetics SA is proud to announce the launch of a newly-funded project. Together with academic and Biotech key-players, the company will participate in the development of DNA vaccines using the Staby® technology (antibiotic-free) during the next 3 years. The objective of the project funded by the Walloon region (BioWin project, 2.3 M €) is to develop and produce antibiotic-free DNA vaccines targeting some veterinary diseases.
The project also involves Eurogentec SA, another Belgian Biotech company (part of Kaneka) in charge of large scale DNA production and purification, and two universities: the Catholic University of Louvain in charge of the pharmaceutical and toxicity aspects of the project and the University of Liège in charge of the vaccinology and veterinary issues. “All partners complement one another perfectly” said Cédric Szpirer, CEO and Head of R&D of Delphi Genetics SA and explained:
“Today vaccination is an uncontested way of fighting disease. DNA vaccination seems to be a particularly promising method at this time, especially in the case of veterinary diseases. However, antibiotic-resistance genes are conventionally used during the construction of DNA vaccines but the resistance is increasingly less tolerated by regulatory agencies (FDA, USDA and EMA). In the context of this project, we propose to replace the antibiotic-resistance gene by the Staby® technology developed by Delphi Genetics and already used for production of recombinant proteins (higher yields and no antibiotics) In order to show the efficiency of our technology, we will develop new veterinary vaccines, we will validate that the method is usable for high scale DNA production and we will show its innocuousness.”
About Delphi Genetics
Founded at the end of 2001, Delphi Genetics SA develops technologies for genetic engineering and protein expression by using unique expertise in the domain of plasmid stabilisation systems.
Since 2004, Delphi Genetics has been marketing innovative kits for researchers. Some of these kits contain technologies that have since been licensed for industrial applications; in 2009 Delphi Genetics announced a non-exclusive licence agreement with Sanofi-Pasteur, the human vaccine division of Sanofi and a non-exclusive agreement with GSK in 2010. These agreements allow Sanofi-Pasteur and GSK to apply the StabyExpress® technology in the production of recombinant proteins, thus enabling them to produce a high yield without using antibiotics.
For more information, visit our website: www.delphigenetics.com

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Contacts

Delphi Genetics SA
Philippe Gabant
delphigenetics@delphigenetics.com
Tel: +32 71 25 10 00