ALiCE’s adventures in Vaccinialand: Applying a tobacco-based cell-free protein synthesis system for vaccine development

Summary

Epidemic and pandemic outbreaks can greatly affect our societies, as observed with the recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Consequently, it has become a priority to develop vaccination platforms rapidly adaptable to emerging threats. In this research, I make use of a novel tobacco-based cell-free protein synthesis system (known as ALiCE) to quickly develop, test, and produce vaccine candidates in the event of a pandemic. We show how the ALiCE system can be used to quickly screen different vaccine candidates, scale-up their production, and test their immunogenic properties. We also developed methods to support the purification of vaccine candidates produced at scale, and to allow higher-throughput screening approaches via the utilization of alternative genetic material. Lastly, a plug-and-play vaccination platform was developed that allows the rapid adaptation to different pathogens. Altogether, this research shows the potential of ALiCE to be used as a pandemic preparedness platform, which might be used in the future to quickly develop vaccine candidates upon an outbreak.