Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics, Gmbh

Novartis Ag

Barbara Capecchi

Rino Rappuoli

Vega Masignani

Maria Scarselli

Susan Barnett

Indresh K Srivastava

Victoria A Sharma

Fusion proteins comprising CD4 minimal modules that bind to HIV Env polypeptides in a non-CD4 backbone are described. Also described are complexes of these fusion proteins with Env as well as methods of diagnosis, treatment and prevention using the polynucleotides and polypeptides are also provided.

Method for generating immune responses utilizing nucleic acids encoding fusion proteins comprising CD4 minimal modules and invasin polypeptides that are capable of binding to the HIV envelope and exposing cryptic neutralization epitopes

Fusion proteins comprising CD4 minimal modules and invasin polypeptides that are capable of binding to the HIV envelope and exposing cryptic neutraliziation epitopes

A system for expressing antigenic polypeptides in oligomeric form fuses the antigenic polypeptide to an oligomerisation polypeptide such that the oligomerisation polypeptide can interact with other oligomerisation polypeptides and bring multiple copies of the antigenic polypeptide into close proximity in the form of an oligomer. Expressing the polypeptides in oligomeric form in this way can improve their immunogenicity compared to a monomeric form.

Polypeptides for oligomeric assembly of antigens

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Siena, Italy

Barbara Capecchi