The Open University ’ s repository of research publications and other research outputs Twenty - first century vaccinomics innovation systems : capacity building in the global South and the role

The availability of sequence information from publicly available complete genomes and data intensive sciences, together with next-generation sequencing technologies offer substantial promise for innovation in vaccinology and global public health in the beginning of the 21st century. This article presents an innovation analysis for the nascent field of vaccinomics by describing one of the major challenges in this endeavor: the need for capacities in ‘‘vaccinomics innovation systems’’ to support the developing countries involved in the creation and testing of new vaccines. In particular, we discuss the need for understanding how institutional frameworks can enhance capacities as intrinsic to a systems approach to health technology development. We focus our attention on the global South, meaning the technically less advanced and developing nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This focus is timely and appropriate because the challenge for innovation in postgenomics medicine is markedly much greater in these regions where basic infrastructures are often underresourced and new or the anticipated institutional relationships can be fragile. Importantly, we examine the role of Product Development Partnerships (PDPs) as a 21st century organizational innovation that contributes to strengthening fragile institutions and capacity building. For vaccinomics innovation systems to stand the test of time in a context of global public health, local communities, knowledge, and cultures need to be collectively taken into account at all stages in programs for vaccinomics-guided vaccine development and delivery in the global South where the public health needs for rational vaccine development are urgent. Vaccinomics Innovation Systems and Postgenomics Medicine Vaccines are one of the most cost effective public health tools for tackling priority disease areas in developing countries (GAVI, 2010). The availability of sequence information from publicly available complete genomes (Altenhoff et al., 2011) and data-intensive sciences (Hey et al., 2009; Kolker, 2011), together with efforts to characterize the microbial world using next-generation sequencing technologies in the postgenomics era (Gilbert et al., 2010) offer substantial promise for innovation in vaccinology and global health in the beginning of the 21st century (Hotez and Pecoul, 2010; Kennedy and Poland, 2010). One particular envisioned advance is rational and mechanistically informed design of vaccines and directed use (e.g., customized at a subpopulation level) of vaccine-based public health interventions (Bagnoli and Rappuoli, 2006). Indeed, successful application of genomic technologies was first demonstrated in the innovation of a vaccine for Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B, reported in 2000 (Pizza et al., 2000). Since then, reverse vaccinology and other techniques associatedwith antigen identification and the ability to rapidly and cost effectively sequence genomes, have resulted in a vastly greater number of potential vaccine candidates than have been identified over the past 40 years. The analysis of entire sets of proteins expressed by a genome (the nascent field of proteomics) is likewise proving to be an important tool in antigen discovery and in understanding the role of the environment in regulating the pathophysiology of microorganisms (Scarselli et al., 2005; Serruto and Rappuoli, 2006). With the recent call made in September 2010 for the Human Proteome Project, we might anticipate further acceleration of the field of vaccinomics, the convergence of classical vaccinology with data intensive sciences and omics technologies. Notably, this 21st century vaccine innovation system that utilizes genomics and proteomics in the discovery, development, and delivery of new vaccines, is comprised of an increasing number of actors and disciplinary fields. A complex Development Policy and Practice, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom. The ESRC Centre for Social and Economic Research on Innovation in Genomics (Innogen Centre), Milton Keynes, United Kingdom. OMICS A Journal of Integrative Biology Volume 15, Number 9, 2011 a Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. DOI: 10.1089/omi.2011.0036