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Gonococcal vaccine initiative    

Year of award: 2018

Grantholders

  • Prof Christoph Tang

    University of Oxford

  • Dr Jun Wheeler

    National Institute for Biological Standards and Control

  • Prof Ann Jerse

    Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

  • Prof Eduard Sanders

    University of Oxford

  • Prof Ian Michael Feavers

    National Institute for Biological Standards and Control

  • Prof Jeremy Derrick

    University of Manchester

  • Prof Martin Maiden

    University of Oxford

Project summary

Sexually transmitted infections caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Ng) are becoming more common and increasingly resistant to antibiotics. Infection causes long-term health problems such as chronic pelvic infections, infertility and it can even cause blindness in newborn children. Cases in the UK have increased threefold over the past decade.

We will develop vaccines to protect people from Ng infection. We will use knowledge of the microbe’s DNA from nearly 5,000 cases across the globe, together with results from a study of at-risk people to identify vaccine candidates. We will make designer vaccines, considering how our immune system recognises and is deceived by the bacterium as well as variation in resistant strains.

Our goal is to generate novel effective vaccines for gonococcus infections.