[White Paper] Best practices for vaccine research with Precellys homogenizers & Precellys Emulsion kit

Vaccination is largely recognized as the most cost-effective way to fight human infectious diseases. Vaccines play a vital role in immunization strategies that have contributed to eradicate dangerous pathogens, increase human life expectancy and reduce disabilities & suffering all around the world. Because both prophylactic and therapeutic vaccination can help reach herd immunity, vaccine research will be crucial in maintaining public health in the future.  The majority of vaccine studies still rely on the use of animal models, in which animals are immunized with the candidate vaccine and then exposed to the pathogen of interest. Most often, the efficiency of the vaccine candidate is assessed with the help of molecular biology techniques that require the homogenization of the infected animal tissues. Bertin has developed a range of homogenizers, the Precellys, to offer researchers a reproducible, robust solution to safely homogenize infected animal tissues and obtain high-quality molecules, compatible with modern molecular biology analysis workflows. The Precellys are powered by 3-D bead-beating, a state-of-the-art technology that is widely acknowledged as the golden standard for homogenization.

A great number of vaccines are also based on the use of adjuvants, substances whose role is to boost the immune system’s reaction to an antigen. Currently, many adjuvants are emulsion-based, such as the Freund’s complete adjuvant or the MF59. Unfortunately, most of the existing methods to prepare emulsions suffer from several pitfalls, including low reproducibility, low throughput, and low cost-efficiency. Bertin Technologies presents the Precellys Emulsion kit, a new turnkey solution to generate high-quality emulsions with the Precellys homogenizers in a consistent way.

In this white paper, we show several application notes where the Precellys homogenizers are used to study infected tissues, to obtain high-quality nucleic acids but also a high recovery of viable microorganisms. We also show how the Precellys Emulsion kit can be used with the Precellys homogenizers to deliver reproducible, high-quality emulsions.