Scientists from Sciensano have joined the European Network of Vaccine Adjuvants (ENOVA), which brings together European experts and stakeholders working in different areas of adjuvant and vaccine research and development, including both prophylactic and therapeutic applications as well as human and veterinary vaccines.
Sciensano’s scientists are part of our services Quality of vaccines and blood products and Immune response.
ENOVA is funded by COST through the EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020 and is coordinated by the Vaccine Formulation Institute. The goals of the network are to facilitate communication and the exchange of information on adjuvants and vaccine formulation among its members, to ensure that new discoveries are widely disseminated so that their potential can be of optimal benefit, to promote the best use of existing adjuvant technologies, and to encourage and support the development of novel adjuvants and vaccines. Currently organizations from 28 countries joined ENOVA.
Vaccines are one of the most successful tools for prevention and control of infectious diseases in humans and animals. Despite success in the control of multiple infectious diseases, there are still many infectious diseases for which no effective vaccine is available. Adjuvants are substances that, when mixed with vaccine antigens, enhance the immune responses to the antigen, and they are subsequently an essential feature of modern vaccine development. While traditional prophylactic vaccines prevent disease, therapeutic vaccines are a promising novel strategy to treat and cure cancer, autoimmune diseases, and infectious diseases by stimulating the immune system to fight the disease. Adjuvants are an essential component in therapeutic vaccines in order to elicit an appropriate and effective immune response.
ENOVA will contribute to the strengthening of Europe’s position as the global leader in vaccinology, and will increase knowledge transfer across the currently fragmented fields within vaccine development, as well as providing a repository of information for the European public about vaccines and vaccination. The network will organize adjuvant workshops and training schools, and will support scientific exchange visits amongst its members. The first call for scientific exchange applications is open now and will close on 17 June 2018.