Staff Profile:Dr Alexander Edwards

Name:

Dr Alexander Edwards

Job Title:

Lecturer in Pharmaceutics

Responsibilities:

Lecturer in Pharmaceutics

Areas of Interest:

My main research focus is the function, design, and manufacture of vaccines.

Conventional vaccines require injection, refrigerated distribution, and challenging manufacturing processes. New vaccines against emerging infections are slow and expensive to develop- for example in the recent H1N1 swine 'flu pandemic, by the time sufficient doses were available to protect the public, the peak of new cases had already passed. I am interested in developing technologies that allow rapid, low-cost manufacture of vaccines against emerging and existing infections.

For example, live bacterial vaccines (LBV) are based on safe, attenuated, modified intestinal pathogens such as salmonella. They can be genetically modified to carry protein antigens from other pathogens such as anthrax or influenza. LBV offer the benefits of oral administration (a 'vaccine pill'), storage and distribution without refrigeration, and simple, low-cost, rapid manufacture. Although much progress has been made in the attenuation of pathogens to develop effective LBV strains, and in genetic engineering to carry other antigens, relatively less is known about the manufacture and delivery of LBV. My recent work has focussed on the influence of bioprocessing on LBV function, and on a novel formulation for intestinal delivery of live bacteria based on bile adsorbing resins.

With a background in basic immunology combined with experience of biochemical and bioprocess engineering, I am an interdisciplinary scientist with broad interests including the molecular basis for immune activation, oral delivery of live bacterial vaccines, delivery of probiotic bacteria, high-density cell line bioreactors, and novel microcapillary diagnostic device development. I have experience of both fundamental biomedical science and the process of commercialisation of research findings.

Research groups / Centres:

Publications:

Y

Jump to: 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008

Number of items: 6.

2012

• Jopeace, A.L., Howard, C.B., Murton, B.L., Edwards, A. and Monie, T.P. (2012) Pattern recognition receptors and infectious diseases. In: Insight and control of infectious disease in global scenario. InTech Open. ISBN 9789535103196

2011

• Edwards, A. D., Reis, N. M., Slater, N. K. H. and Mackley, M. R. (2011) A simple device for multiplex ELISA made from melt-extruded plastic microcapillary film. Lab on a Chip (11). pp. 4267-4273. ISSN 1473-0197 doi: 10.1039/C0LC00357C

2010

• Edwards, A. D., Chatterjee, P., Mahbubani, K. T., Reis, C. M. and Slater, N. K.H. (2010) Optimal protection of stabilised dry live bacteria from bile toxicity in oral dosage forms by bile acid adsorbent resins. Chemical Engineering Science, 65 (16). pp. 4844-4854. ISSN 0009-2509 doi: 10.1016/j.ces.2010.05.030

2009

• Cheeks, M. C., Edwards, A. D., Arnot, C. J. and Slater, N. K.H. (2009) Gene transfection of HEK cells on supermacroporous polyacrylamide monoliths: a comparison of transient and stable recombinant protein expression in perfusion culture. New Biotechnology, 26 (6). pp. 289-299. ISSN 1871-6784 doi: 10.1016/j.nbt.2009.08.006
• Edwards, A. D. and Slater, N. K.H. (2009) Protection of live bacteria from bile acid toxicity using bile acid adsorbing resins. Vaccine, 27 (29). pp. 3897-3903. ISSN 0264-410X doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2009.04.006

2008

• Edwards, A. D. and Slater, N. K.H. (2008) Formulation of a live bacterial vaccine for stable room temperature storage results in loss of acid, bile and bile salt resistance. Vaccine, 26 (45). pp. 5675-5678. ISSN 0264-410X doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2008.08.024

This list was generated on Sun May 27 18:42:45 2012 BST.

Peer reviewed papers:

J. M. Carr, M. J. Carrasco, J. E. Thaventhiran, P. J. Bambrough, M. Kraman, A. D. Edwards, A. Al-Shamkhani, D. T. Fearon. CD27 mediates interleukin-2-independent clonal expansion of the CD8+ T cell without effector differentiation. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA vol 103 p 19454-9, 2006.

N. C. Rogers, E. C. Slack, A. D. Edwards, M. A. Nolte, O. Schulz, E. Schweighoffer, D. L. Williams, S. Gordon, V. L. Tybulewicz, G. D. Brown, C. Reis E Sousa. Syk-dependent cytokine induction by Dectin-1 reveals a novel pattern recognition pathway for C type lectins. Immunity vol 22 pp. 507-17, 2005.

J. Herre, A. S. Marshall, E. Caron, A. D. Edwards, D. L. Williams, E. Schweighoffer, V. Tybulewicz, C. Reis e Sousa, S. Gordon, G. D. Brown. Dectin-1 uses novel mechanisms for yeast phagocytosis in macrophages. Blood, vol 104 pp. 4038-45, 2004.

A. D. Edwards, D. Chaussabel, S. Tomlinson, O. Schulz, A. Sher and C. Reis e Sousa. Relationships among murine CD11c^high dendritic cell subsets as revealed by baseline gene expression patterns. J Immunol, vol 171 pp. 47-60, 2003.

A. D. Edwards, S. S. Diebold, E. M. C. Slack, H. Tomizawa, H. Hemmi, T. Kaisho, S. Akira, and C. Reis e Sousa. Toll-like receptor expression in murine DC subsets: lack of TLR7 expression by CD8a⁺ DC correlates with unresponsiveness to imidazoquinolines, European J Immunol, vol. 33, pp. 827-833, 2003.

S. P. Manickasingham, A. D. Edwards, O. Schulz, and C. Reis e Sousa. The ability of murine dendritic cell subsets to direct Th differentiation is dependent on microbial signals, European J Immunology, vol. 33, pp. 101-107, 2003.

A. D. Edwards, S. P. Manickasingham, R. Spörri, S. S. Diebold, O. Schulz, A. Sher, T. Kaisho, S. Akira, and C. Reis e Sousa. Microbial recognition via toll-like receptor-dependent and -independent pathways determines the cytokine response of murine dendritic cell subsets to CD40 triggering, J Immunol, vol. 169, pp. 3652-3660, 2002.

Schulz, A. D. Edwards, M. Schito, J. Aliberti, S. Manickasingham, A. Sher, and C. Reis e Sousa. CD40 triggering of heterodimeric IL-12 p70 production by dendritic cells in vivo requires a microbial priming signal, Immunity, 13 p 453-462, 2000.

Published patent application:

"Immunoassays, methods for carrying out immunoassays, immunoassay kits and methods for manufacturing immunoassay kits" Inventors A. D. Edwards, N. Reis, N. K. H. Slater and M. R. Mackley. GB Filing 29 March 2010; PCT Filing 25 March 2011 . UK patent application number GB 1005191.0. Filed by Cambridge Enterprise Ltd.

Edwards AD and Slater NKH. FORMULATIONS OF VIABLE CELLS FOR ORAL DELIVERY. WO/2010/079343. Filed by Cambridge Enterprise Ltd. Initial filing 11-01-2009; PCT filing 11-01-2010.

Weblinks:

Academia.edu page (with most papers linked):

http://rdg.academia.edu/AlexanderEdwards

Linkedin:

http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/alexander-edwards/10/70b/218

Web of Science ResearcherID: F-7440-2010

http://www.researcherid.com/rid/F-7440-2010

 

!Self funded PhD studentship now available!

"Smartphone diagnostics for field testing for infectious diseases using Micro Capillary Film devices"

If you have the correct qualifications and access to your own funding, either from your home country or your own finances, your application to work on these or similar projects will be considered.