ADDovenom: Novel Snakebite Therapy Platform of Unparalleled Efficacy, Safety and Affordabillity
About ADDovenom
Snakebites can be life-threatening when venom toxins are injected and enter the bloodstream. In areas where immediate access to specialised medical care is limited, bites by venomous snakes cause many thousands of deaths each year.
The EU-funded ADDovenom Project will use an innovative platform enabling generation of new snakebite treatment, based on a new disruptive protein-based nanoscaffold called ADDomer© – a megadalton- sized, thermostable synthetic virus-like particle with 60 high-affinity binding sites to neutralise and eliminate venom toxins from the bloodstream.
ADDovenom combines pioneering proteomics, transcriptomics and bioinformatics focusing on snake toxins provoking the most challenging syndromes like haemorrhage and paralysis. The aim is to develop first-in-class neutralising superbinders for snakebite therapy of unprecedented efficacy against the most prevalent Sub-Saharan snakes.
ADDomer©: Synthetic multiepitope display scaffold for next generation vaccines.
Research
The project comprises several technological challenges (rational design of new antigens as consensus toxins/epitope strings, design of an ADDobody library) and high-risk
research (in vitro selection of new binders from a novel protein scaffold).
Mass
spectrometry
and
bioinformatics
to analyse venoms
In vitro
evolution
and
characterization
of
ADDobody binders
Examination of neutralizing ability of selected ADDobodies
and gigabodies
Scalable bioprocess
for
gigabody production
bullets
Latest News
ADDovenom researchers lead Engineering Biology Mission Award project
ADDovenom researchers will lead a new project on snakebite treatments, one of twenty-two UKRI Engineering Biology Mission Awards announced by the UK government in February 2024. Prof Christiane Schaffitzel (University
ADDovenom researchers co-author new paper on ADDobodies and ADDomers
Four current and former researchers from the ADDovenom team at the University of Bristol are among the authors of a paper about ADDobodies and ADDomers, published in the journal Structure
Thomas Crasset awarded FRIA doctoral scholarship
Congratulations to Thomas Crasset, who has been awarded a four-year FRIA (Fund for Research Training in Industry and Agriculture) doctoral scholarship by Le Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS). In
ADDovenom project explained in new paper
ADDovenom: Thermostable Protein-Based ADDomer Nanoparticles as New Therapeutics for Snakebite Envenoming, a paper describing the aims of the ADDovenom project and the methodologies being used, has been published by Toxins (28
Researcher Spotlight: Konrad Hus
For our Researcher Spotlight features, we interview members of the ADDovenom research team, to find out about their interests, their contributions to the project, and their hopes for the future
ADDovenom poster displayed at Venoms & Toxins 2023
Iara Aimê Cardoso, a Research Assistant at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, presented a poster at the 10th International Toxinology Meeting – Venoms & Toxins 2023 (Oxford, 22-24 August 2023)
ADDovenom annual meeting takes place in Liverpool
The ADDovenom team gathered at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine for this year’s annual meeting (12-13 September), discussing progress towards the production of the next-generation of snakebite treatments. Researchers
ADDovenom research features on Innovation Radar
The European Commission’s Innovation Radar has highlighted two achievements of the ADDovenom project as ‘great EU-funded innovations’. The ‘production of recombinant snake venom toxins for research and therapeutic purposes’ has
LSTM features in BBC Earth short film
The work of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, an ADDovenom partner, is explored in a nine-minute film from BBC Earth released in July 2023. ‘Extracting Venom From Deadly Snakes‘
Experts
Christiane Berger-Schaffitzel
University of Bristol
~Project Coordinator~
Imre Berger
University of Bristol
Loïc Quinton
University of Liège
Renaud Vincentelli
Aix-Marseille University
Nicholas Casewell
Liverpool School of
Tropical Medicine
Robert Harrison
Liverpool School of
Tropical Medicine
Paula Alves
iBET
Antonio Roldão
iBET