Poly(amino acids) as immune stimulators (2021-2024)
Abstract
This project aims to develop nanoparticles built from natural hydrophobic amino acids as an immune stimulatory delivery system for peptide antigens. Currently available immune stimulants (adjuvants) are often toxic and/or are poorly chemically defined fragments of bacteria or toxins and vary from batch-to-batch. New adjuvants are in high demand; especially to facilitate the use of optimal, but weakly immunogenic, peptide antigens. It is expected that the proposed project will develop a novel efficient, safe and notably biodegradable self-adjuvanting delivery system that can be fully customised to match an antigen of choice. This foundational research should provide important advances for commercial immune stimulatory applications.
