Neyts and Dallmeier have developed a patented technology that no longer requires the use of fertilized chicken eggs. Neyts: “We managed to paste the genetic code of the live but attenuated yellow fever virus into a specially developed plasmid, or circular piece of DNA. That can be grown in large culture vessels. It’s a very standardized process that can be applied anywhere in the world. Following injection, the body starts to produce its own yellow fever vaccine based on the plasmid.”

The candidate vaccine has already proven to be very effective in laboratory animals. “Not only does it generate antibodies; it also triggers all arms of the immune system. However, as academics, we don’t have the resources to handle large-scale production and clinical trials ourselves.”

By early 2025, AstriVax plans to start clinical trials of the yellow fever vaccine. “There is a great demand for such vaccines in Africa, South America and from the growing international travel market,” says AstriVax CEO Hanne Callewaert.

“Besides generating long-lasting immunity, another advantage of our vaccine is that it does not require a cold chain transport,” adds Neyts. “This kind of transport involves keeping temperatures low constantly, even as low as -20 to -80 degrees Celsius, like with the recent mRNA COVID vaccines. Not needing such a demanding cold chain is a big advantage in tropical areas.”

Meanwhile, the X-factor of AstriVax’s “plug and play” platform is the fact that it’s modular. “We can cut into the code of the yellow fever vaccine, which means we can also introduce a piece of code from other viruses while using the yellow fever vaccine as a vector or carrier,” explains Neyts.

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