Nanocell COVID-19 vaccine triggers a novel immune response pathway producing high-affinity antibodies which neutralize all variants of concern.

Most current anti-viral vaccines elicit a humoral and cellular immune response the pathway of phagocytic cell mediated viral antigen presentation to B and T cell surface receptors. However, this pathway results in reduced ability to neutralize S-protein Receptor Binding Domains (RBDs) from several Variants of Concern (VOC) and the rapid waning of memory B cell response requiring vaccine reformulation to cover dominant VOC S-proteins and multiple boosters. Here we show for the first time in mice and humans, that a bacterially derived, non-living, nanocell (EDV; EnGeneIC Dream Vector) packaged with plasmid expressed SARS-CoV-2 S-protein and α-galactosyl ceramide adjuvant (EDV-COVID-αGC), stimulates an alternate pathway due to dendritic cells (DC) displaying both S-polypeptides and αGC thereby recruiting and activating iNKT cells with release of IFNγ.

Scaffolds for islets and stem cells differentiated into insulin-secreting cells.

Embryonic/pluripotent stem cells offer the possibility of an unlimited source of cells to be differentiated into beta cells. This requires differentiating the stem cells into pancreatic progenitors by tissue culture, and then transplanting into recipients for the final stages of development into mature beta-cells. Exposing embryonic stem cells seeded onto laminin coated PLGA scaffolds to biochemical cues resulted in enhanced expression of definitive endoderm markers compared to those differentiated on 2D monolayers.

Towards optimising the production of and expression from polycistronic vectors in embryonic stem cells.

Polycistronic vectors linked by self-processing 2A peptides have been successfully used in cellular reprogramming. The expression of these vectors has yet to be well documented in embryonic stem cells. In the present study, we generated expression cassettes containing combinatorial arrangements of 3 pancreatic transcriptions factors (Pdx1, Nkx2.

Definitive endoderm derived from human embryonic stem cells highly express the integrin receptors alphaV and beta5.

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) can be directed to differentiate into a number of endoderm cell types, however mature functional cells have yet to be produced in vitro. This suggests that there may be important factors that have yet to be described, which may be essential for the proper derivation of these cells. One such factor is the integrin mediated interactions between a cell and the extracellular matrix (ECM).

Modeling the adhesion of human embryonic stem cells to poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) surfaces in a 3D environment.

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have previously been cultured on three dimensional (3D) biodegradable polymer scaffolds. Although complex structures were formed from the hESCs, very little is known about the mechanism of adhesion of these cells to the surfaces of the scaffolds. In this study, we achieved the efficient adhesion of pluripotent hESCs to 3D poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) scaffolds based on our data from a novel two dimensional (2D) model that imitates the surface properties of the scaffolds.