SmartVac Project

Publications:

1) N-Glycosylation and N-Glycan Processing in HBV Biology and Pathogenesis.(2020) Dobrica MO, Lazar C, Branza-Nichita N. Cells. 9(6):E1404. Published 2020 Jun 4. doi:10.3390/cells9061404, IF 5,6

2) A polycarboxylic chelating ligand for efficient resin purification of His-tagged proteins expressed in mammalian systems. (2020) Codruta C. Popescu, Marius C. Stoian, Lia-Maria Cucos, Anca G. Coman, Antonio Radoi, Anca Paun, Niculina D. Hadade, Arnaud Gautier, Costin-Ioan Popescu and Mihaela Matache. RSC Adv., 10, 23931, IF 4,03

3) Production of Chimeric Hepatitis B Virus Surface Antigens in Mammalian Cells. (2020) Mihaela-Olivia Dobrica, Catalin Lazar and Norica Branza-Nichita. Vaccine Delivery Technology: Methods and Protocols, Methods in Molecular Biology, Blaine Pfeifer and Andrew Hill (eds.), vol. 2183, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0795-4_7, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. Book chapter.

4) Challenges and Prospects of Plant-Derived Oral Vaccines against Hepatitis B and C Viruses. (2021) Pantazica AM, Cucos LM, Stavaru C, Clarke JL, Branza-Nichita N. Plants (Basel), 10, 2037.https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10102037, IF 4,6

5) Hepatitis C virus E2 envelope glycoprotein produced in Nicotiana benthamiana triggers humoral response with virus-neutralizing activity in vaccinated mice. (2021) Dobrica MO, van Eerde A, Tucureanu C, Onu A, Paruch L, Caras I, Vlase E, Steen H, Haugslien S, Alonzi D, Zitzmann N, Bock R, Dubuisson J, Popescu CI, Stavaru C, Liu-Clarke J, Branza-Nichita N. Plant Biotechnology Journal, Oct;19(10):2027-2039, IF 9,8

6) Efficient cellular and humoral immune response and production of virus-neutralizing antibodies by the Hepatitis B Virus S/preS116-42 antigen (2022) Pantazica A-M, Dobrica MO, Lazar C, Scurtu C, Tucureanu C, Caras I, Ionescu I, Costcahe A, Onu A, Liu Clarke J, Stavaru C, Nichita N. Frontiers in Immunology, Jul 22;13:941243, IF 8.78

7) The "humanized" N-glycosylation pathway in CRISPR/Cas9-edited Nicotiana benthamiana significantly enhances the immunogenicity of a S/preS1 Hepatitis B Virus antigen and the virus-neutralizing antibody response in vaccinated mice (2023) Ana-Maria Pantazica, André van Eerde, Mihaela-Olivia Dobrica, Iuliana Caras, Irina Ionescu, Adriana Costache, Catalin Tucureanu, Hege Steen, Catalin Lazar, Inger Heldal, Sissel Haugslien, Adrian Onu, Crina Stavaru, Norica Branza-Nichita, Jihong Liu Clarke. Plant Biotechnology Journal, Jun;21(6):1176-1190. , IF 13.26

8) The red alga Porphyridium as a host for molecular farming: Efficient production of immunologically active hepatitis C virus glycoprotein (2024) Alexander Hammel, Lia-Maria Cucos, Iuliana Caras, Irina Ionescu, Catalin Tucureanu, Vlad Tofan, Adriana Costache, Adrian Onu, Lara Hoepfner, Michael Hippler, Juliane Neupert, Costin-Ioan Popescu, Crina Stavaru, Norica Branza-Nichita, Ralph Bock. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 121(24): e2400145121. IF 9.40

PhD defence:

Ana-Maria Mădălina Pantazică, (August 28, 2023) "Production and characterization of chimeric subviral particles forthe development of a novel vaccine against Hepatitis B" (summary of the PhD thesis).

Lia-Maria Cucos, (September 12, 2024) "Production and characterization of novel E2 HCV envelope antigens for vaccine development" (summary of the PhD thesis).

Conferences:

1) The 49th Conference of the Romanian Society for Immunology &The 4th Conference of the Romanian Association for Immuno-Dermatology. 30.09-3.10.2020 Videoconference:

AM Pantazică*, OM Dobrică*, C Scurtu, N Nichita. "Production and characterization of novel HBV chimeric antigens". *Authors with equal contribution to this work.

LM Cucoș, TA Șulea, L.Spiridon, N Nichita, CI Popescu. “HCV Envelope Protein E2 Antigen Design and Characterization for Vaccine Development”

2) The annual conference of scientific research in the Romanian Academy. 23.11.2021

Nichita N, “The HCV E2 glycoprotein produced in Nicotiana benthamiana induces humoral immune response with virus-neutralizing activity in mice” (oral presentation).

3) The Annual Symposium of the INCDMM “Cantacuzino” Institute. 25.11.2021

Nichita N, “Production of novel vaccine antigens derived from the Human Hepatitis B Virus” (Key lecture)

4) Annual Symposium of the Protein Society (USA), July 7-14, 2021

Pantazică A-M, Dobrică MO, Scurtu C, Nichita N, “Production and Characterization of Novel HBV Chimeric Antigens”, (poster presentation)

Cucos L-M, Sulea T, Caras I, Spiridon L, Stavaru C, Nichita N, Popescu CI, “Hepatitis C Virus envelope protein E2 based antigen design and characterization for vaccine development”, (poster presentation)

5) ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE of the ROMANIAN SOCIETY of BIOCHEMISTRY and MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, Iași, 26-27th September, 2019

MO Dobrica, L. Paruch, D. Alonzi, N. Zitzmann, CI Popescu, J. Dubuison, J. Liu-Clarke, N. Nichita, “Generation and characterization of HCV-E2 antigen in Nicotiana Benthamiana leaves for vaccine development”, (poster presentation)

6) 2022 International HBV Meeting, 18 – 22 September 2022, Paris, France.

Ana-Maria Pantazica, Mihaela-Olivia Dobrica, Catalin Lazar, Cristina Scurtu, Catalin Tucureanu, Iuliana Caras, Irina Ionescu, Adriana Costache, Adrian Onu, Jihong Liu- Clarke, Crina Stavaru, Norica Nichita. “Novel Hepatitis B S/preS1 chimeric antigen induces efficient cellular and humoral immune response and production of virus-neutralizing antibodies”, (poster presentation)

7) FEBS-IUBMB-ENABLE 2022, 16 - 18 November 2022, Seville, Spain

Ana-Maria Pantazica, Mihaela-Olivia Dobrica, Catalin Lazar, Cristina Scurtu, Catalin Tucureanu, Iuliana Caras, Irina Ionescu, Adriana Costache, Adrian Onu, Jihong Liu- Clarke, Crina Stavaru, Norica Branza-Nichita. "Novel chimeric Hepatitis B S/preS1 antigen induces efficient cellular and humoral immune response and production of virus-neutralizing antibodies" (short-talk)

Cucos Lia-Maria, Teodor Asvadur Sulea, Laurentiu Spiridon, Norica Nichita, Costin-Ioan Popescu. "Hepatitis C Virus Envelope Protein E2 Antigen Design and Characterization for Vaccine Development", (poster presentation)

8) Annual Conference of PhD students of the Institute of Biochemistry, December 12, 2022, Bucharest

Ana-Maria Pantazica, Mihaela-Olivia Dobrica, Catalin Lazar, Cristina Scurtu, Catalin Tucureanu, Iuliana Caras, Irina Ionescu, Adriana Costache, Adrian Onu, Jihong Liu- Clarke, Crina Stavaru, Norica Nichita “Production and characterization of chimeric subviral particles for the development of a novel HBV vaccine”, (oral presentation)

Cucos Lia-Maria, Teodor Asvadur Sulea, Laurentiu Spiridon, Norica Nichita, Costin-Ioan Popescu.“Production and characterization of HCV antigens based on the envelope protein E2, for vaccine development”, (oral presentation)

9) The Annual International Conference of RSBMB, September 13-15, 2023, Cluj-Napoca

Nichita Norica Beatrice "Production of chimeric subviral particles with enhanced immunogenicity for the development of next- generation HBV vaccines", (oral presentation).

Pantazica Ana-Maria, Eerde Andre, Dobrica Olivia, Caras Iuliana, Ionescu Irina, Adriana Costache, Tucureanu Catalin, Steen Hege, Lazar Catalin, Heldal Inger, Haugslien Sissel, Onu Adrian, Stavaru Georgeta-Crina, Liu Clarke Jihong, Nichita Norica Beatrice. ""Humanization” of the N-glycosylation pathway in Nicotiana benthamiana via CRISPR/Cas9 technology significantly improves the immunogenicity of HBV antigens and the virus- neutralizing antibody response in vaccinated mice", (oral presentation).

Cucos Lia-Maria, Sulea Teodor Asvadur, Laurentiu Spiridon, Caras Iuliana, Ionescu Irina, Adriana Costache, Stavaru Georgeta-Crina, Nichita Norica Beatrice, Popescu Costin-Ioan. "Hepatitis C Virus Envelope Protein E2 Antigen Design and Characterization for Vaccine Development", (oral presentation).

Dobrica Olivia "Plant-produced Hepatitis C Virus E2-derived glycoproteins for vaccine development", (oral presentation).