Simon Flückiger

• Master's Thesis Sponsor. Thesis Title: "Bioengineering of E. coli isolates for the production of OMV based vaccines."

• Development of novel attenuated bacterial live vaccines: Genomic screening and manipulation of potential vaccine strains to improve vaccine efficacy, Cloning and manipulation of genes of interest into various plasmid systems, to screen new targets, Development of a novel plasmid based cloning and expression plasmid platform, to accelerate gene to vaccine candidate time
• Exploration of novel cell based antigen presenting strategies: Screening and evaluation of novel antigen presentation and delivery strategies, Development of expression and downstream strategies, Assay development
• Production of protein based antigens: Lab-scale expression of proteins in E. coli and S. Typhimurium. Optimization of cell lysis and protein purification with ÄKTA
• Support in planning and evaluation of vaccine trials: Preparation of test material for animal trials, Analysis and evaluation of samples from animal trials
• Lab management and Supervision of apprentices: Organization of lab infrastructure, Evaluation and ordering of consumables, Supervision of apprentices, Training apprentices in standard laboratory methods

Innosuisse Project with Malcisbo AG on the further development of a production process for an attenuated bacterial live vaccine against Campylobacter jejuni

• Operative project lead: management of the project, planning, execution, evaluation and presentation of the results to the industry partner
• Development of an industry like Fed-Batch process: in a fully integrated and automated 12 L bioreactor, followed by a freeze drying and storage regime and subsequent in vitro simulation of the GIT passage and cell invasion in chicken.
• High biomass yield achieved, with optimized product quality at a competitive price per vaccine dose
• Supervision of bachelor and master students, organization of lab courses, teaching and general lab management.

• Development and cloning of a new bacterial vaccine candidate against Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae

• Establishment and enhancement of methods and SOP's
• Independent planning and execution of different projects (BiFC in leek epidermal cells, tobacco infiltration and HR assays).

• Support in lab- and fieldwork
• Independent planning and execution of different projects (i.e Generation of stable GFP-expressing ciliates).

• Establishment and enhancement of methods, SOP's and instruments (capillary electrophoresis)
• Independent planning and execution of different projects (screening of wheat populations, expression of lipid-binding protein and corresponding lipid-binding assays).