Meningococci, the main pathogens of bacterial meningitis, still cause epidemics in certain regions in the world, for example in Africa and India. There is an effective vaccine, but its production is cumbersome. Up to now, large amounts of the pathogen had to be cultured, from which the required antigens were isolated in several production stages. This brings with it two problems: first the associated biohazard and second, the purification and disposal of the bacterial cultures. Prof. Rita Gerardy-Schahn and her team at the Hannover Medical School’s Institute for Cellular Chemistry have therefore developed an alternative, completely bacteria-free production method that can also be used in infrastructure-poor countries. The LifeScience Foundation has supported the project with a grant of EUR 89,000. The money was used to purchase special chromatography equipment that was essential to establishing the new, enzyme-catalysed production process. The equipment not only enables the production of the necessary starter molecules of defined length, but also the tracking of the manufacturing process and reliable quality control.
(Annual Review 2016)
