NextEboVax: Next generation vaccines for outbreak prepardness

The family Filoviridae consists of antigenically distinct human pathogenic viruses such as, among others, Ebola virus, Marburg virus and Sudan virus. Filoviruses have evolved sophisticated ways of evading the immune response thereby causing high mortality rates, and outbreaks are recurring over the past decades. Only two vaccines have been granted market authorization by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for Ebola virus, yet none for the other highly pathogenic filoviruses. The aim of this PhD thesis is to study the protective efficacy of transgenic yellow fever 17D vectored vaccine candidates targeting the glycoprotein of the distinct filoviruses in small animal models, and with sera derived from small animal models. To that end, we will make use of pseudotyped filoviruses, such as recombinant vesicular stomatitis viruses carrying the glycoprotein of these filoviruses, which can be used within biosafety level 2 facilities, as well as a wide range of assays to evaluate the immune response elicited by the experimental vaccine candidates to ultimately determine the quality of the protective efficacy of these vaccine candidates.