Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University

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Tropical Viral Vaccine Development

In 2022, Nagasaki University was selected as one of the synergy centers to play a central role in vaccine research and development on the “Project for Establishment of a World-Leading Research and Development Center for Vaccine Development” which was initiated by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development （AMED）. To implement the research and development plans of the project, the Institute of Tropical Medicine （NEKKEN） of Nagasaki University established the Department of Tropical Viral Vaccine Development （TVVD） in April 2023. The main objective of the newly established department is to further research on the development of medicines for tropical viral infectious diseases, with particular emphasis on the development of dengue vaccines.

Members

Professor
Buerano Corazon Cerilla
Professor
Kouichi Morita
Associate Professor
Yuki Takamatsu
Assistant Professor
Balingit Jean Claude Palma
Assistant Professor
Muhareva Raekiansyah
Assistant Professor
Nguyen Thi Thanh Ngan
Visiting Researcher
Mya Myat Ngwe Tun
Assistant
Akiko Baba
Assistant
Kimiko Watanabe

Activities

Our research activities are on the following:

  • development of new live dengue vaccines, characterization of candidate dengue vaccines and elucidation of immune responses to and antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) of vaccines in human trials.
  • development of a p seudovirus-based DENV panel system for quantitatively evaluating the neutralizing and ADE responses across diverse DENV genotypes.
  • development of a high-throughput in vitro assay for reliable detection of ADE antibodies using immortalized human cell lines.
  • investigation of the mechanism of ADE infection in newly developed mouse model.
  • investigation of the role of ADE in long-term epidemics, outbreaks, and outcomes of dengue infection in dengue - endemic areas in the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar.
  • sero-molecular epidemiological studies on arboviruses (DENV, Japanese encephalitis virus, Zika virus, Chikungunya virus) in various countries in Asia (Myanmar, Southern Vietnam, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia) that are important for vaccine development and evaluation of the impact of future vaccination programs.
  • development of drugs/ compounds against arboviruses and study to understand the mechanisms by which these antivirals inhibit viral infection or replication.

Recent main research achievement

  1. Buerano and Morita. Lancet Infect Dis 2024; doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(24)00181-6.
  2. Balingit et al. Int J Infect Dis 2024; 139: 59-68.
  3. Ngwe Tun et al. Vaccines (Basel) 2023; 11(12): 1857.
  4. Ngwe Tun et al. Am J Trop Med Hyg 2023; 109(4): 917-925.
  5. Ngwe Tun et al. J Infect Public Health 2023; 16(9): 1435-1442.
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