Bacterial flagellin: a novel adjuvant for vaccine strategies

The focus will be on development of strongly protective vaccines aimed primarily to fish, but the knowledge generated will be highly relevant within vaccine development to mammalian species - as fish possess very similar immune defence mechanisms compared to mammalian species. This will be achieved by recombinant production of different flagellins from salmonid pathogens such as V. anguillarum and V. salmonicida for TLR5 receptor binding studies that include soluble TLR5 - a novel fish TLR5 homologue. Str uctural studies of the flagellins and TLR5 will be performed as individual molecules and in complex to understand the molecular basis of flagellin recognition by TLR5. Output immune response analysis will be assessed by PCR based tools (real-time PCR, mic roarray) and functional studies (production of immune molecules).