$161,209
DIVISION OF BASIC SCIENCES - NCI
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
The lambda capsid (coat protein(s)) can be engineered to contain and display on its surface specific epitope(s) of disease-causing agents. Thus, the lambda vaccine does not rely on using attenuated or killed organisms as the vaccine. The lambda system also does not rely on the use of drug-resistant plasmid clones and expression of vaccine proteins from those clones. Additionally, because the lambda phage on which the vaccine is created is very specific for E. coli K12; it does not infect and spread in other organisms or even other E. coli subspecies. We have used recombineering to engineer phage lambda to display foreign proteins or segments of proteins on the lambda capsid surface. The lambda capsid D protein is present in 320 copies, and we have displayed on lambda foreign peptides fused to either the N or C terminus of the D protein. These modified phages can be produced in bulk, purified and used as vaccine delivery vehicles. We initiated this phage vector system to display cancer proteins on lambda particles pursue creation of cancer vaccines.