LICR A Founding Member of New Swiss Institute for Vaccine Research
The LICR is proud to be one of four founding members of the recently launched Swiss Institute for Vaccine Research (SIVR). The new institute — a partnership between LICR and three Swiss institutions: Le Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), L’Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) — will seek to develop vaccines to fight infectious diseases and cancers.
Through the integration of the three research institutions and the hospital, the SIVR will develop laboratory platforms in the fields of immunology, vaccine development and microbiology to promote translational research and to encourage collaboration between investigators of different backgrounds, including both laboratory investigators and clinicians. New research groups will also be created through the recruitment of young investigators. The SIVR will concentrate its primary efforts on major infectious diseases—HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria—and also develop vaccines against cancers and influenza. With its dual focus on infectious diseases and cancers, the SIVR is expected to combine knowledge from separate disease areas and promote a more effective use of resources.
As part of the SIVR, the LICR Lausanne Branch will continue its translational research program in immunology aimed at developing clinically effective cancer vaccines. LICR investigators will also collaborate with other groups at the SIVR to develop standardized assays for the monitoring of T and B cell responses in patients after vaccination. Dr. Rob MacDonald, the newly-appointed Lausanne Branch Director, is looking forward to the Branch being part of the SIVR. “The new institute will bring in a critical mass of experts in vaccine research and immunology that is needed to create an interactive and competitive environment. It will make a great difference for our investigators to be in close contact with other scientists who share our research interests, regardless of the fact that we work on different diseases.”
SIVR will have a number of sites. The LICR Lausanne Branch remains in its current setting at the Center for Biomedical Research in Epalinges, north of Lausanne. The SIVR will join LICR on this site in early 2009 following the departure of the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC), which is moving to the EPFL campus.
Financial support of 5M Swiss francs (4M USD) for the creation of SIVR has been provided by the Swiss State Secretariat of Education and Research. This funding complements a 17M francs (15M USD) grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which was awarded last year to Prof. Giuseppe Pantaleo (Chief of the CHUV Division of Immunology & Allergy and Laboratory of AIDS Immunopathogenesis) as part of the international Collaboration AIDS Vaccine Discovery network. The SIVR is directed by an Executive Board with representatives from the four member institutions. Prof. Pantaleo is Chairman of the Board, which also includes Drs. MacDonald, Antonio Lanzavecchia (Director, IRB) and Didier Trono (Dean, Faculty of Life Sciences, EPFL).
The inauguration of the SIVR took place in Lausanne on December 5 in the presence of the Swiss Secretary of State for Education and Research, Mr. Charles Kleiber, and representatives from the SIVR institutions, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the World Health Organization. LICR was represented by Dr. Rob MacDonald, Prof. Jane Royston (Board of Directors) and Mr. Richard Walker (Chief Financial Officer).