International funding to advance safer, more effective vaccines

Australian researchers will investigate how key vaccine ingredients activate the immune system, with potential applications across infectious diseases, cancer and other major health challenges.

Researchers from WIMR and The University of Sydney have received a five year grant worth approximately US$3.68 million from the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance research aimed at developing safer and more effective vaccines.

The international project will be led by Professor Tony Cunningham AO FAHMS and Dr Kerrie Sandgren, co leaders of WIMR’s Vaccines and Adjuvants Group, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle.

The grant is administered by the University of Sydney and funded through the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Vaccines often contain helper ingredients known as adjuvants, which strengthen and guide the body’s immune response. While adjuvants are essential to the effectiveness of many vaccines, scientists do not yet fully understand how different ingredients work together within the human immune system.

The research team will study two adjuvant ingredients, MPL and QS 21, which are already used together in several approved vaccines, including the shingles vaccine Shingrix, to which Professor Cunningham was the principal academic contributor.

Without vaccination, around one in three Australians will develop shingles during their lifetime, with the risk of serious complications increasing with age.

Using WIMR’s innovative human lymph node model, the researchers will investigate how these adjuvant ingredients work together to activate immune cells and generate protection.

A clearer understanding of this process could help scientists more precisely select the right adjuvant for different vaccines, diseases and patient populations, supporting the development of vaccines that are more effective, longer lasting and potentially associated with fewer side effects.

The knowledge generated could also inform future vaccines and other immune based approaches for infectious diseases, cancer and other conditions. Around 170,000 new cases of cancer were expected to be diagnosed in Australia in 2025, illustrating the potential reach of research that improves scientists’ ability to precisely activate the immune system.

Professor Tony Cunningham said the research would help address an important gap in scientists’ understanding of how vaccine adjuvants work.

“Adjuvants or immunostimulants are now understood to be as important as the parts of the virus or bacteria used in vaccines. The adjuvant we’re studying, AS01, has been instrumental in making the Shingrix vaccine very highly effective in ageing people and also in prolonging the efficacy for over a decade.

“It is now being incorporated into several vaccines but this has been empirical rather than based on scientific rationale.”

Dr Kerrie Sandgren said the team hoped the research would ultimately contribute to better vaccines for older people.

“We hope that the outcomes of our research will lead to fewer side effects and the expansion of the efficacy and durability of Shingrix to other vaccines for the ageing.”

The award builds on years of vaccine and immunology research led by Professor Cunningham, Dr Sandgren and their colleagues at WIMR and the University of Sydney.

Their team has developed a novel model using donated human lymph node tissue to investigate how vaccines initiate immunity, helping bridge the gap between laboratory research and studies in humans.

The project, titled Mechanism of Action of MPL QS21 Adjuvant Combination, will run until June 2031.