Collin Nicolas, Group Leader

Nicolas Collin is Doctor in Veterinary Medicine and Doctor in Molecular Virology (University of Toulouse III). He worked as Project Leader on gene therapy in a Biotech company (Transgene), and completed a postdoctoral fellowship on Leishmania vaccines at the National Institutes of Health in Washington DC. In 2008 he joined the World Health Organization (Geneva) and was coordinator of the WHO Influenza Vaccine Task Force during the H1N1 pandemic.

Nicolas Collin joined UNIL in January 2010 upon the creation of the Vaccine Formulation Laboratory.

nicolas.collin@unil.ch

Adjuvants are increasingly used by the vaccine research and development community, particularly for their ability to enhance immune responses and for their dose-sparing properties. However, they are not readily available to the majority of public sector vaccine research groups, and even those with access to suitable adjuvants may still fail in the development of their vaccines because of lack of knowledge on how to correctly formulate the adjuvants. 

This shortcoming led the World Health Organization to promote the establishment of the Vaccine Formulation Laboratory at the University of Lausanne, in January 2010. The VFL acts as a platform for adjuvants with the following main strategies:

1. Supply of adjuvants for research and preclinical development

2. Custom vaccine formulation services

3. Transfer of technology to vaccine manufacturers

4. Training on adjuvants and vaccine formulation

The Vaccine Formulation Laboratory is offering a wide variety of adjuvant systems for preclinical use, including generic formulations, commercially available adjuvants and proprietary adjuvants provided under material transfer agreements. Please contact us with your requirements.

The Vaccine Formulation Laboratory is providing free-of-charge formulation services. This activity was initiated as a part of Transvac, a collaborative infrastructure project funded under the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme 

Applications to the Transvac’ free access services are made through a competitive process: http://www.transvac.org

Any groups can also apply to access the VFL’s formulation services outside of the Transvac programme. Several adjuvant systems can be evaluated for formulation with a collaborator’s antigen which can be tested at the VFL by in vitro and in vivo characterisation assays.

In September 2010, the Wellcome Trust awarded the Vaccine Formulation Laboratory translational funding for the establishment of stability, preclinical immunogenicity and safety of low dose inactivated polio vaccine adjuvanted with commercial oil in water emulsion. Exploratory preclinical studies have suggested that oil in water emulsions can permit the use of reduced doses of inactivated polio vaccine. 

This could facilitate immunisation against polio in areas where the oral polio vaccine is poorly effective as well as enabling broad immunisation after oral polio vaccine cessation. The clinical studies following this project will be conducted in India to confirm the immunogenicity of the reduced dose adjuvant vaccine in a paediatric population.

In October 2010, the United States Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) selected the Vaccine Formulation Laboratory to transfer the know-how for manufacturing an oil-in-water emulsion for adjuvantation of pandemic influenza vaccines. Bio Farma, Indonesia, a grantee of the WHO initiative to transfer the capacity to produce influenza vaccines to DCVM, was our first technology transfer partner.

The first phase of the project, comprising the installation of equipment required for production and characterization of oil-in-water emulsions, the establishment of relevant standard operating procedures, training of laboratory staff, and on-site validation of the transferred processes has been successfully completed. The second phase of the project comprising preclinical studies compliant with national regulatory requirements is currently conducted and aims to direct towards human clinical testing of oil-in-water adjuvanted pandemic influenza vaccines. 

Following the success of the technology transfer to Bio Farma, Indonesia, a second recipient of the emulsion technology, the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals (IVAC), in Vietnam was selected. This project is supported by the German technical cooperation Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and is currently ongoing.

The Vaccine Formulation Laboratory offers numerous adjuvant hands-on training & theoretical courses including:

Training on good practices in Vaccine Formulation

Training on Quality Control of adjuvanted vaccines

Training courses on preclinical evaluation of adjuvanted vaccines (stability, immunogenicity, etc.)

UPCOMING TRAINING COURSES

2nd TRANSVAC Training Course "Practical approaches to vaccine development"  -
11 - 15 March, 2013, UNIL  

See "Latest News" for more information.

Training course on adjuvant systems - 2013, UNIL

An adjuvant training course will be held at the VFL in 2013. This three-day course will cover good practices of vaccine formulation with several adjuvant systems such as aluminium salts, water-in-oil emulsions, oil-in-water emulsions, TLR4 agonists, CpG, saponins, and liposomes.    Registration modalities will be communicated in due time.

PAST TRAINING COURSES

TRANSVAC training course "Practical approaches to vaccine development" - September 2012,  UNIL

Training course for Developing Countries scientists on the manufacture of oil-in-water adjuvants - December 2011, UNIL

Training course for Developing Countries scientists on preclinical evalution of adjuvanted pandemic vaccines - December 2011, RIVM, The Netherlands

Training course for Developing Countries scientists on the manufacture and QC of oil-in-water adjuvants - March 2011, UNIL