Babies are most vulnerable to life-threatening diseases such as pneumococcal and whooping cough in their first few weeks of life, yet current vaccines can’t be given until two months of age.
Every year more than one million babies around the world don’t live long enough to be immunised against these deadly diseases, so researchers from the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases have teamed up with a consortium which aims to optimise current or develop new vaccines to provide immediate protection from birth.
Funded by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) US$15 million grant, the Expanded Program on Immunization Consortium (EPIC) Study is led by some of the world’s leading infectious disease experts, including Professor Tobias Kollmann, who recently moved to The Kids Research Institute Australia from the University of British Columbia, and Professor Ofer Levy, of the Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Professor Peter Richmond, Head of the Vaccine Trials Group at the Wesfarmers Centre, said EPIC arose out of a desire to understand more about how newborn babies’ immune systems develop, and how they respond to vaccinations.
“The first stage of the study involved pioneering a technique which gives unprecedented insight into the dramatic changes occurring in a baby’s body in the first week of life – all using less than a quarter of a teaspoon of blood,” Professor Richmond said.
“In the past we haven’t had the tools to look in depth at the immune response in very early life, because the necessary testing required large volumes of blood which can’t be taken when babies are that small.
“Researchers now have access to vital information that can be used to optimise the design of vaccines and allow babies to be vaccinated a lot earlier, with the added benefit of longer-lasting immunity.”
This major NIH research grant was secured thanks to initial pilot data funded by the Wesfarmers Centre. Led by Professor Richmond, Senior Research Fellow Dr Anita van den Biggelaar, and Professor William Pomat, Director of the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research, this involved obtaining samples and investigating vaccine responses in 30 newborns born in PNG.
The Wesfarmers Centre’s involvement in the EPIC Study also paved the way for Professor Kollmann’s move to The Kids from Canada and opened doors to further collaboration opportunities involving the ground-breaking Human Vaccines Project.