The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has been awarded a £7 million grant by Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership to support the creation of a state-of-the-art Veterinary Vaccinology & Cell Therapy Hub on its Hawkshead campus.
The Hub will bring together top veterinary and human medical science researchers to advance the ‘One Health’ approach. The work conducted at this facility, in Brookmans Park, will accelerate the development of next-generation vaccines and cell therapies that will fight key animal infections and ultimately protect humans.
Livestock, and in particular cattle, pigs and poultry, will be the main focus of the Hub because they are the species that provide much of our animal-derived dietary protein. These animals are intensively reared to meet the global demand and as a result, they are increasingly susceptible to infections, hence the need for the development of effective vaccines. The Hub’s facilities will support the use of large animal models in vaccine development to create species-specific immunological tools or reagents, replacing the more common use of mice to formulate vaccines for livestock.
Due to open in the summer of 2020, the Hub will contain specialist facilities, such as laboratories, housing for animals and an incubator for small businesses, and is part of a multi-million-pound redevelopment plan for the RVC’s Hawkshead campus.
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