Due to copyright issues, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. For the faculty to have time to process the order, the order must be received by the faculty at the latest 2 days before the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. After the public defence, please address any inquiries regarding the thesis to the candidate.
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Stefan Zielonka, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
- Second opponent: Assistant Professor Sai Sunder Rajan Raghavan, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Associate Professor Lorena Arranz, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Erik Dissen, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor Jan Terje Andersen, University of Oslo
Summary
Respiratory infections induce local immunity in the lung, a vital first-line defense often bypassed by standard intramuscular vaccines. While systemic immunization is effective, it often fails to establish mucosal immunity, allowing viral transmission even in vaccinated individuals. Delivering vaccines directly to the airways could bridge this gap, yet crossing the complex mucosal barrier remains a significant technical hurdle.
In this thesis, Anette Kolderup leverages albumin—a protein naturally transported across epithelial barriers via the neonatal Fc receptor—to overcome this challenge, presenting a novel modular albumin-based subunit vaccine platform that elicited local and systemic antibody responses comparable with or superior to a commercial mRNA vaccine, conferring protection against lethal viral challenge in mouse models.
Furthermore, to support populations who may not respond adequately to vaccines, such as the immunocompromised, Kolderup designed an albumin-based prophylactic antiviral biologic. This agent effectively neutralized diverse SARS-CoV-2 variants and provided robust protection in mice.
Taken together, the findings in this thesis demonstrate the pharmacological versatility of albumin as a carrier for next-generation biologics and vaccine antigens.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.