Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB
Biocontainer for drug transport and vaccination
Virus-like particles (VLP) are bio-based capsules that mimic viruses and can be used in a variety of ways. They are suitable for packaging and target delivery of drugs, as they can transport therapeutic agents in high concentrations, with few side effects and targeted intravenously.
Due to their stability, size and multivalence, VLPs are also excellently suited as a basis for vaccines, for example against viruses that are difficult or impossible to grow in vitro, or against foreign proteins that are presented on the surface.
However, the broad use of VLPs is limited by the lack of standardised and efficient platform technologies for their production. Similar to a modular system, VLPs can be brought to different sites of action with different loads. Therefore, the aim is to establish a universal process and a modular platform for the production of VLPs.
The production of virus variants by engineering their genomes, for example using bacterial artifical chromosomes (BAC), represents a further competence of the research group.