Development of a Universal Group A Streptococcus Glycoconjugate Vaccine

Group A Streptococcal (GAS) infections kill >500,000 people annually worldwide and currently no vaccine exists. Antimicrobial resistance is emerging globally, and a GAS vaccine is a current global imperative that the WHO has included in its vaccine priority list. An effective GAS vaccine needs to cover all >150 variant strains known and has to be low-cost to be deployed in low income countries where it is most needed. Recently the polyrhamnose sugar backbone that coats GAS cells was validated as vaccine candidate. Sugars are excellent vaccine candidates, particularly when conjugated to carrier proteins, but current methods to achieve this are complex and costly. Using our novel technology, we will conjugate the polyrhamnose sugar to conserved GAS proteins developing a vaccine against all GAS strains. We will use simple E. coli cells that act as mini factories to produce the low-cost vaccine providing the first robust global solution to GAS infection.