Wolf-Dietrich Hardt, Emma Wetter Sack and Méderic Diard among the top 5 nominees for the ETH Spark Award
Evolutionary Trap Vaccines: Inactivated oral vaccines driving bacterial enteropathogens into evolutionary dead ends
The Spark Award is given for the most promising invention at ETH Zurich resulting in a patent application. The criteria for the evaluation are: originality, patent strength and market potential. The Spark Award 2020 went to the chemical biologists Prof. Helma Wennemers and Dr. Matthew Aronoff and recognises their project on chemical tools for fibrosis and tumor imaging.
With their project on Evolutionary Trap Vaccines against Salmonella in animals Prof. Wolf-Dietrich Hardt and his former lab members Profs. Emma Wetter Slack and Méderic Diard made it to the top 5 nominees for the Spark Award.
Breeding animals often suffer from diarrhoea caused by Salmonella, but since the bacterium is constantly changing, previous vaccines quickly become ineffective. Wolf-Dietrich Hardt, Emma Wetter Slack and Médéric Diard have developed a vaccine that exploits this genetic modification. Their vaccine triggers an immune response that directs the evolution of Salmonella in such a way that the only survivors are harmless pathogens that are also difficult to transmit to other animals.
external page ETH News Article
external page Video "Evolutionary Trap Vaccines"
Hardt Lab | Wetter Slack Lab | external page Diard Lab