Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1

Dr. Pelletier joins leadership team to continue the advancement of Vaccitech’s diverse clinical pipeline and partnerships, bringing more than 15 years’ experience in pharmaceuticals and academia in immunology and infectious diseases Former CSO, Dr. Tom Evans to continue supporting company as a consultant OXFORD, United Kingdom, Jan. 30, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vaccitech Limited (NASDAQ: VACC), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of novel immunotherapeutics and vaccines for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases, autoimmunity and cancer today announced the appointment of Nadège Pelletier, Ph.D., as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). “We are pleased to welcome Dr. Pelletier to Vaccitech at the start of 2023, a year in which we anticipate several important clinical milestones,” said Chief Executive Officer, Bill Enright. “Dr. Pelletier’s wealth of experience in drug discovery and development, as well as her ability to establish and maintain lasting collaborations within the industry, will propel the advancement of our growing pipeline and support our mission to deliver first-in-class therapies for devastating diseases that pose significant public health risks.” Dr. Pelletier is stepping into the role formerly held by Tom Evans, Ph.D., who is retiring but will remain involved as a scientific consultant to the company. “For the past six years, Tom has been integral in elevating Vaccitech’s pro pipeline to serve a global patient community. We extend our tremendous gratitude for his leadership, passion, and drive,” added Mr. Enright. “While he is stepping back as CSO, he will continue to advise on our scientific efforts.” Dr. Pelletier will lead Vaccitech’s scientific teams in all phases of drug discovery and platform development, as well as build and oversee the strategic technical direction of the company. Dr. Pelletier brings extensive experience to Vaccitech in the areas of immunology, inflammation and infectious diseases. She joins Vaccitech from the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research and prior to that Roche Pharma Research & Early Development, where she served as Project Leader in the fields of autoimmunity, inflammation and infectious diseases. At Novartis, Dr. Pelletier was a discovery leader in a fast-track, multi-indication early clinical program on tolerance induction, and was responsible for maintaining accountability in building solid preclinical packages, biomarker strategies, and translational plans for disease focus and indication expansion. Prior to her role at Novartis, Dr. Pelletier was responsible for several preclinical and clinical projects in all phases of development to restore immune balance in autoimmunity and chronic infectious diseases, and was a key contributor to advancing immune modulation strategies for chronic Hepatitis B and respiratory infections. “It’s an exciting time to be joining Vaccitech,” said Dr. Pelletier. “I look forward to supporting the work underway and generating new strategies that will help the company achieve its goal of advancing a deep clinical-stage pipeline of therapies for life-threatening diseases that currently have limited treatment options, where its T cell therapeutic candidates are ideally suited for restoring effective, balanced, antigen-targeted immune responses.” In addition to her experience with Novartis and Roche, Dr. Pelletier also served as a Senior Scientist at Merck-Serono in Geneva, Switzerland, and as a postdoctoral fellow at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. Dr. Pelletier holds a Ph.D. in immunology from Claude Bernard University, ENS-Lyon, in Lyon, France and a Master of Science in Genetics and Immunology from ENS-Lyon. About Vaccitech Vaccitech is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel T cell immunotherapeutics designed to utilize the power of the immune system to treat and cure chronic infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and cancer. The company stands apart through a proprietary, multi-platform approach that has shown the ability to induce higher magnitudes of T cells compared with other technologies. Vaccitech is uniquely positioned to address the needs of large, underserved patient populations through a diverse clinical-stage pipeline of investigational therapies targeting life-threatening diseases that pose significant public health risk and have limited treatment options. The company’s lead product candidates include VTP-300, an immunotherapy candidate designed as a component of a potential functional cure for chronic hepatitis B viral (HBV) infection; VTP-200, a non-invasive, early-stage investigational treatment for persistent, high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV); VTP-850, a novel T cell investigational therapy for prostate cancer; and VTP-1000, a preclinical T cell therapeutic candidate for immune tolerance in celiac disease. Vaccitech has proven drug development and scientific expertise in the field of immunization, co-inventing a COVID-19 vaccine with the University of Oxford, which is now approved and exclusively licensed worldwide to AstraZeneca. For more information, visit . IR contacts: Christopher M. Calabrese  Managing Director  LifeSci Advisors 917-680-5608 ccalabrese@lifesciadvisors.com Kevin Gardner Managing Director LifeSci Advisors 617-283-2856 kgardner@lifesciadvisors.com Media contact: Mike Beyer Sam Brown, Inc. 312-961-2502 mikebeyer@sambrown.com Company contact: Jonothan Blackbourn IR & PR Manager Vaccitech IR@vaccitech.co.uk A photo accompanying this announcement is available at Nadège Pelletier, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer Nadège Pelletier, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer

Researchers have long studied the color-changing properties of the natural mineral hackmanite upon exposure to UV radiation or X-rays. Now, the research group studied the reactions of synthetic hackmanite to nuclear radiation. The researchers discovered a one-of-a-kind and novel intelligent quality, gamma exposure memory, which allows the use of hackmanite as e.g. radiation detector. Researchers at the University of Turku, Finland, have long studied the color-changing properties of the natural mineral hackmanite upon exposure to UV radiation or X-rays. Now, the research group studied the reactions of synthetic hackmanite to nuclear radiation. The researchers discovered a one-of-a-kind and novel intelligent quality, gamma exposure memory, which allows the use of hackmanite as e.g. radiation detector. A research group at the University of Turku, Finland, has studied the unique natural mineral hackmanite and its properties for years. They have developed a method of synthesising hackmanite and created numerous applications utilizing the material's color-changing and luminescence properties. At the moment, the group is for example developing a hackmanite-based non-electronic UV radiation dosimeter, which will be tested at the International Space Station. Radiation exposure in space can be measured by observing hackmanite's changing color from white to pink caused by UV radiation. The researchers have now also investigated how the synthetic hackmanite reacts when exposed to alpha particles, beta particles (positrons) or gamma radiation. They discovered that hackmanite changes colour from exposure to these radiation types, too, which means that it is also a radiochromic material. This was previously unknown. The impact of the radiation was studied in the laboratory of Swedish partners in Umeå, the laboratory of the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, and the radiochemistry laboratory of the University of Turku by placing hackmanite plates at different distances from radiation sources for varying periods of time, which exposed them to different doses of radiation. "After that, the samples were photographed and their reflectance spectra were measured to provide information about their color depth and whether the coloring was similar to samples exposed to e.g. UV light and X-rays. The color change upon exposure to nuclear radiation was very similar to UV radiation and X-ray exposures, but slower, due to most of this radiation passing through the material without impacting it," says Doctoral Researcher Sami Vuori. The color-changing in hackmanite is similar in all radiation exposures, but there was a slight difference in the spectra of the samples exposed to nuclear radiation. According to the researchers, this was the key in discovering a new feature. Researchers discovered new intelligent property -- gamma exposure memory enables hackmanite-based non-toxic radiation detectors The researchers noticed that hackmanite that had been colored using nuclear radiation can be reverted to its original color similarly to that exposed to UV radiation and X-rays, i.e. by heating the material or exposing it to white light. "We noticed that hackmanite will however preserve a memory trace of the exposure to high-energy radiation such as alpha particles or gamma radiation. The memory trace will remain even when the color is changed back to the original. It becomes visible when the sample is colored again using a UV lamp. To the naked eye, the color is similar to the material exposed to UV radiation or X-rays, but spectrometry reveals a small but distinct change in the shape of the signal," says the leader of the research group, Professor Mika Lastusaari. With computational results, the researchers could verify that nuclear radiation creates a new type of structural defect in hackmanite. This defect acts as a certain type of memory unit in the material. The radiation does not destroy the hackmanite, but offers a new type of intelligent function, gamma exposure memory, which according to the researchers has not been detected in any other material. Despite the gamma exposure memory and the structural defect, one of the basic intelligent properties of hackmanite, the ability to change color repeatedly, remains the same. "The color-changing upon nuclear radiation means that hackmanite can be used to create radiochromic films regularly used in different applications of medical physics to measure radiation doses and map dose distribution. The current radiochromic films are usually manufactured from polydiacetylenes or leucomalachite green and are either non-reusable or toxic. Hackmanites offer a non-toxic option which can be used repeatedly. Moreover, hackmanite has a memory property that other materials lack. Hackmanite is also an ecological and inexpensive material that is easy to synthesize," says Lastusaari. The study was conducted by the Intelligent Materials Research Group, radiochemistry research group, and Department of Physics of the University of Turku, and the computations were done at University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France. The international research consortium also comprised the Mineralogical Society of Antwerp, Belgium, the Universities of Tampere and Jyväskylä, Finland, and the Swedish Defence Research Agency.

NIH BRAIN Initiative to fund primate brain atlases, maps of developing mouse brain, coordination and knowledge sharing, and brain function research By Rachel Tompa, Ph.D. / Allen Institute SEATTLE, Sept. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientists at the Allen Institute are launching the brain equivalent of the Human Genome Project, leading a new global collaboration to map the approximately 200 billion cells in the human brain by their type and function. Continue Reading The collaboration is funded by the National Institutes of Health's Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative as part of The BRAIN Initiative® Cell Atlas Network, or BICAN, and will also build detailed atlases of macaque and marmoset brains. Led by Ed Lein, Ph.D., Senior Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, a division of the Allen Institute, and Hongkui Zeng, Ph.D., Executive Vice President and Director of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the human and primate atlas grant project also includes sub-projects led by researchers from 17 other institutions in the U.S., Europe and Japan. Allen Institute scientists and global collaborators are building a Human Genome Project for the brain. Tweet this "We are aiming to create something transformative for the field that can only be done collaboratively, by bringing in an all-star cast of experts from a variety of disciplines," Lein said. "This is critical work: We need to understand the human brain better if we hope to treat diseases of the brain, and specifically we need a better understanding of brain function and structure. The cell atlases we're building with the support of the BRAIN Initiative promise to lead to a more rapid understanding of the basis of many brain diseases." Four additional BICAN grants to the Allen Institute will support coordination and administration of the network; construction of a web-based knowledge platform using BICAN findings to accelerate scientific discovery; mapping the developing mouse brain; and tying mouse brain cells and function. Like all Allen Institute resources, the findings, techniques and data from these projects will be made publicly available. "We're honored to be recognized through these grants and are thrilled to partner with leading researchers around the world to build the first comprehensive map of the human brain," said Rui Costa, D.V.M., Ph.D., President and CEO of the Allen Institute. "This atlas will open new doors in neuroscience and, ultimately, in medicine as well." From mice to us These projects build off earlier NIH BRAIN Initiative-funded projects at the Allen Institute and elsewhere to map the cells of the entire mouse brain and parts of the human brain using the full suite of genes switched on in individual cells, a technique known as single-cell transcriptomics. Understanding the cell types in commonly studied mammals like mice is key to improving translational research to ultimately benefit people suffering from brain diseases and disorders, said Zeng, who is also co-leading a BICAN project headquartered at Harvard University to map cell types throughout the development of the mouse brain. "We need to better understand the similarities and differences between the human brain and those of other primates and rodents, which often serve as the subjects for research," Zeng said. "Comparing cell types is one of the most robust and accurate ways of comparing the brains of different species, and we are doing this at a refined level and at the most comprehensive scale we can achieve. Better relating animal studies and animal models with the structure and function of the human brain itself — that's one of the major goals we want to achieve." Together, the five awards total over $173 million in funding to support these projects, including portions of the projects carried out at collaborating institutions, over the next five years. "With the announcement of the BICAN awards, we are making an exciting transition in the overall BRAIN Initiative cell census program, which began in 2014," said Dr. John Ngai, Director of the NIH BRAIN Initiative. "These awards will enable researchers to explore the multifaceted characteristics of the more than 200 billion neurons and non-neuronal cells in the human brain at unprecedented detail and scale — a feat in advanced technologies and cross-team research collaboration that will reveal new paradigms for understanding how pathological changes in particular groups of brain cells could cause neurologic and neuropsychiatric disorders." We have hundreds of different kinds of brain cells — why? Two of the newly funded BICAN projects aim to address a key unanswered question in neuroscience: What do our different kinds of brain cells actually do? One of these projects, led by Anton Arkhipov, Ph.D., Associate Investigator in the Allen Institute's MindScope Program, and Marina Garrett, Ph.D., Assistant Investigator in the MindScope Program, aims to marry neuron function with cell type in the regions of the mouse brain that process what the animal sees. The scientists will develop new methods that use a high-resolution microscope to visualize specific kinds of cells in the mouse brain; these experiments will follow experiments capturing those same neurons' activity as animals perceive and react to their visual environments. The primate brain atlas project will also marry cellular maps with brain function, using a technique known as functional MRI that captures blood flow in the brain: Active regions of the brain are correlated with higher levels of blood flow. The researchers will then correlate active regions of the brain with specific cell types using an emerging method known as spatial transcriptomics, which labels cell types in their original location in the brain. The human atlas researchers will also expand experiments long underway at the Allen Institute that study the details of living human neurons using brain tissue donated by Seattle-area brain surgery patients. Two other awards to the Allen Institute will support coordination and knowledge sharing for the BICAN community. One team, led by Shoaib Mufti, Senior Director of Data and Technology at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, Michael Hawrylycz, Ph.D., Investigator, and Lydia Ng, Ph.D., Investigator, will develop a public, web-based knowledge platform to bring together and disseminate all the data and findings generated through BICAN work. The other group, led by Hawrylycz and Carol Thompson, Ph.D., Associate Director of Data Management, will build an engagement, coordination and outreach center for all BICAN-funded research. "We're thrilled to be part of this extraordinary endeavor of the BRAIN Initiative, which is building on the success we and others have had in defining brain cell types," Zeng said. "This grant package demonstrates the leading role the Allen Institute is playing in the field — from data generation to computational analysis, as well as organization of the data, knowledge, and the entire community. We look forward to working together with our colleagues to make ground-breaking discoveries about the human brain." Other investigators on the BICAN grants described above include: Trygve Bakken, Jennie Close, Song-Lin Ding, Rebecca Hodge, Tim Jarsky, Brian Kalmbach, Michael Kunst, Brian Lee, Brian Long, Jeremy Miller, Kim Smith, Staci Sorensen, Susan Sunkin, Bosiljka Tasic, Jonathan Ting, Jack Waters, and Zizhen Yao of the Allen Institute; Tim Brown, Kimiko Domoto-Reilly, Tom Grabowski, Dirk Keene, and Christine MacDonald of UW Medicine; Bruce Fischl and Eugenio Iglesias of Massachusetts General Hospital; Guoping Feng, Satrajit Ghosh, and Nancy Kanwisher of Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Winrich Freiwald of Rockefeller University; Matt Glasser and David Van Essen of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis; Henry Kennedy of INSERM and the Université Claude-Bernard Lyon; Takuya Hayashi of RIKEN; Fenna Krienen of Princeton University; Noah Snyder-Mackler of Arizona State University; Michael Platt of the University of Pennsylvania; Sten Linnarsson and Rickard Sandberg of Karolinska Institutet; Xiaolong Jiang and Andreas Tolias of Baylor College of Medicine; Philipp Berens of the University of Tubingen; Gabor Tamas of the University of Szeged; Christiaan de Kock and Huib Mansvelder of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Boudewijn Lelieveldt of Leiden University Medical Center; David Osumi-Sutherland of EMBL-EBI; Maryann Martone and Anita Bandrowski of the University of California, San Diego; Jerry Chen of Boston University; Paola Arlotta of Harvard University; Tomasz Nowakowski of the University of California, San Francisco; and Sami Farhi of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Research reported in this publication is supported by the National Institutes of Health BRAIN Initiative under Award Numbers UM1MH130981, U01MH130907, U01MH130962, U24MH130918, and U24MH130919. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. About the Allen Institute The Allen Institute is an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit research organization founded by philanthropist and visionary, the late Paul G. Allen. The Allen Institute is dedicated to answering some of the biggest questions in bioscience and accelerating research worldwide. The Institute is a recognized leader in large-scale research with a commitment to an open science model. Its research institutes and programs include the Allen Institute for Brain Science, launched in 2003, the Allen Institute for Cell Science, launched in 2014, the Allen Institute for Immunology, launched in 2018, the MindScope Program, launched in 2020, and the Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics, launched in 2021. In 2016, the Allen Institute expanded its reach with the launch of The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, which identifies pioneers with new ideas to expand the boundaries of knowledge and make the world better. For more information, visit alleninstitute.org. Media Contact: Peter Kim, Sr. Manager, Media Relations 206.605.9884 | [email protected] SOURCE Allen Institute