The TBVAC2020 consortium, coordinated by TBVI and including 40 partners from both the private and the public sector, has achieved so far remarkable results by a unique way of collaboration, where open sharing and true partnership are key elements.
The Annual TBVAC2020 Meeting, started yesterday, 31st of January 2017 and continuing today, 1st of February 2017 in Les Diablerets (Switzerland) is an exciting opportunity for all scientists of the consortium to share their results across seven work packages. R&D activities of the consortium range from upstream activities such as TB vaccine discovery to preclinical model developments to early clinical developments.
Dr. David Pejoski, from the University of Geneva, is part of Work Package 1, Novel delivery systems & immunisation strategies.
David, you are involved in upstream R&D activities for the development of TB vaccines. What aspects of your work and your projects do you find more interesting?
My project involves basic research to help understand how T cells can be guided to the lung, where they would be more effective in protecting against tuberculosis. The potential to uncover, and then apply general immune mechanisms to vaccine design is a particularly motivating aspect of the work.
What is the added value of being part of the TBVAC2020 consortium?
The consortium is a huge asset in the TB field where each partner brings something valuable to the program. This includes new tools, techniques, or data in all domains of immuno-vaccinology – that is openly shared between participants. It’s this openness to share resources that provides a clear advantage to TBVAC members. For example, the regular dissemination of preliminary data within the Workpackage framework allows members of the consortium to stay at the forefront of TB research, as well as have access to an excellent portfolio of vaccine platforms, antigens, models, and clinical samples. Together, this gives the program an unmatched level of choice during the vaccine development process in addition to the capacity to perform head-to-head comparisons of leading candidates.
What do you expect from the Annual TBVAC2020 Meeting?
The annual meeting plays a key part in updating members of scientific findings and guiding the future activities in all areas of the program. Collaborators have several days to communicate their annual findings, draw on the wide range of collective expertise to troubleshoot when required, forge collaborative goals with new partners, and use the most current results to harmonise future perspectives of the consortium.