Dr. Phanramphoei Namprachan Frantz, Researcher of Virology and Cell Technology, is the latest recipient from BIOTEC to receive the Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship.The fellowship will enable her to develop a yeast-based candidate vaccine against Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV) under the supervision of Prof. Frederic Tangy, Director of Virale Genomique and Vaccination Laboratory, Institut Pasteur, France.
Her project, named PIGYVAX, aims to create pig vaccine candidates against PEDV, a pathogen of swine causing significant challenges to the swine industry globally. Given her in-depth knowledge on pathogenesis of PEDV, Dr. Phanramphoei intends to use the yeast-RNP platform to express spike protein (S1) antigen of PEDV and deliver it orally to stimulate a protective immune response against PEDV in sows, which will be passively transferred to fully protect piglets from succumbing to the disease. Through this project, she will also gain expertise on vaccine study and development from Institut Pasteur.
Dr. Phanramphoei is the 3rd BIOTEC researchers selected to for this prestigious award. Her predecessors include Dr. Noppol Kobmoo and Dr. Nitsara Karoonuthaisiri.
