ARTES Biotechnology announces the acquisition of the unique SplitCore technology developed by scientists at the University of Freiburg, Germany.

Backbone of this platform is a flexible integration and presentation of foreign antigens on the surface of capsid virus like particles (cVLP), which can be produced in bacteria and yeast.

With its yeast based METAVAX® platform for antigen presentation on envelope virus like particles (eVLP´s), ARTES is already well established and a preferred partner for human and animal vaccine development projects. The inclusion of the SplitCore technology in ARTES’ vaccine development portfolio enables the company to offer customers an even broader spectrum of service solutions for the development of their specific vaccines.

“With the two potent and versatile platforms, SplitCore and METAVAX®, we can now offer the full range of nanoparticle based vaccine development, covering both capsid VLP’s and envelope VLP´s. Antigens, ranging from peptide epitopes to complex proteins, are compatible with these technologies and can be manufactured in all major recombinant production platforms including E. coli, yeast and CHO cells”, Volker Jenzelewski, Director Technology of ARTES, said. “SplitCore will substantially complement our capability to address technical and economical challenges our pharmaceutical customers may face. Together with our METAVAX® platform, which already result in several vaccine candidates manufactured, we are now even stronger positioned to support the development of innovative vaccines.”

SplitCore bases on the technology to split the core or capsid protein of Hepatitis B virus into two parts. These splitted core antigens form efficiently nanoparticles known as capsid virus like particles (cVLP). On the surface of those particles, differently structured proteins can be added with a high degree of freedom and will then be presented highly exposed and hence effective to the immune system.