Morten Agertoug Nielsen

PhD, Cand Scient Biologi, Professor of Translational Immunology

  • Blegdamsvej 3B

    2200 København N

  • Source: Scopus
20002024

Research activity per year

Personal profile

CV

Curriculum Vitae, Morten A Nielsen, Professor of Translational Immunology, PhD Health Sciences, MSc Biology Copenhagen

Major scientific achievements

  • Identified differences in variant surface antigen expression of Plasmodium falciparum, which paved the way for identification of genes involved in the particular virulence of the parasite infections in children.
  • Setup high throughput potency binding-inhibition assays that allowed identification, assessment and clinical development of vaccine candidate against placental malaria.
  • Principal investigator in the project PlacMalVac that identified the PAMVAC placental malaria vaccine and transferred it from preclinical to first in human studies in Germany and Benin.
  • Co-Founded the research group that identified a versatile capsid virus like particle vaccine platform.
  • Principal investigator in the Prevent-nCoV project that identified the ABNCOV2 SARS-COV-2 vaccine candidate and transferred it from preclinical to first-in-human studies in the Netherlands.
  • Elucidating the potential of using onco-foetal chondroitin sulphates as tumour associated antigen in targeting of bispecific antibodies in cancer immuno-therapy.
  • Principal investigator in the Advance VAC4PM project that from 2021-2026 will identify and transfer the 2nd generation PAMVAC-cVLP vaccine from preclinical over first-in-human phase I to phase 2 studies in the Netherlands and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Major Collaborative Grants

  • FP7 project, PlacMalVac, total budget of € 7M. Principal investigator and coordinator.
  • H2020 grant, Prevent-nCoV, total budget € 3.4M. Principal investigator and coordinator.
  • TransVac2, Prevent-nCoV GAP Total budget € 0.6M budget. Principal investigator and coordinator.
  • Global health innovative technology, VAC4PM, Total budget € 3.4M. Principal investigator.
  • Horizon Europe, Advance VAC4PAM, total budget € 10M. Principal investigator.
  • Innovation fund Denmark, PIGVAC, Total budget € 2M. Principal investigator.
  • Lundbeck foundation, CytoPad, € 1.3M. Work package leader.
  • EU Eurostars, TREAT-Her2, Total budget € 1.1M. Principal investigator.
  • NFF Tandem, Pre-operative mRNA treatment, Total budget € 1.3M. Work package leader.
  • EU Eurostars, OptiFemVac, Total budget € 0.8M. Work package leader.

Innovation and entrepreneurship

  • Combined funding to projects that I participated in, technology that I co-invented and investments into companies that I am co-founder of is currently more than €200M. Most recent €108M to Bavarian Nordic from the Danish Government to support a phase III clinical trial our AdaptVac COVID19 vaccine – ABNCoV2.
  • 2020: Negotiation of license on corona virus vaccines between AdaptVac and Bavarian Nordic. Deal value excluding royalties € 136M.
  • 2020: Negotiation of license between AdaptVac and ExpreS2ion on HER2 vaccine. Deal value excluding royalties € 29M.
  • 2017: Negotiation of license on VLP technology between UCPH and AdaptVac.
  • 2017: Co-founder in NextGen Vaccines and AdaptVac (adaptvac.com).
  • 2012: Co-Founder: VAR2 Pharmaceuticals (https://var2pharma.com/) & VARCT (varctdiagnostics.com).

Boards

  • AdaptVac: Chairman, NextGen Vaccines: Chairman, Centre for Medical Parasitology: Member, Board of Innovation at Department of Immunology and Microbiology: Member.

Intellectual property & Patent families:

  • Compounds useful in the diagnosis and treatment of malaria. US Patent App. 10/585,027, 2004.
  • Targeting of chondroitin sulfate glycans. WO 2013117705 A1.
  • Virus like particle with efficient epitope display PA 2014 70679.
  • VLP vaccine with SpyTag PA 2015 70019.
  • DNA/RNA vaccines Application no. PCT/EP2021/086528

Regulatory

  • Regulatory meetings with Swedish Regulatory Board on PAMVAC, Paul Erlich Institute Germany on PAMVAC, Paul Erlich Institute Germany on ABNCoV2 and Central Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects The Nederlands on ABNCoV2

Personal Achievements

  • Born 26th of May 1974 in Gentofte.
  • Married to Maria Dige Nielsen. Children: Nicolai (born 2007) and Frederik (born 2010).

Education

  • PhD at Institute for Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Health Sciences, UCPH (2005);
  • Master in Biology at Department of Infectious; Diseases at Copenhagen University Hospital (2001);
  • Bachelor degree at Department of Biology, Section for Microbiology, UCPH (1999);
  • Mathematical Exams at Vordingborg Gymnasium (1993)

Employment History

  • Current: Professor of Translational Immunology at Department of Immunology and Microbiology.
  • 2008 - 2023: Associate Professor at Institute for International Health, Immunology and Microbiology.
  • 2005 - 2007: Post Doc at Dept. of Infect. Diseases at Copenhagen University Hospital.
  • 2004 - 2005: Scientific assistant at Dept. of Infect. Diseases at Copenhagen University Hospital.
  • 2001 – 2004: Phd Student at Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology.

Teaching and supervision

  • Mentor in Post doc programme. UCPH, Teaching at “Human Parasitology” Course for Master students. UCPH; Teaching at the “Applied Immunology” Course for Master students, UCPH; Teaching at the “Development and production of vaccines”, DTU; Course planning and teaching “Malaria Epidemiology and Immunology” for PhD students, UCPH; Teaching at the “Basic Immunology” Course for Masters students of Human Biology, UCPH; Teaching at the Medical Biotechnology and Drug Development course for pre-graduate students, DIS; Supervision of students: Supervisor of more than 14 PhD, 15 MSc, 6 BSc and two OSwal students since 2008

Public Outreach

Referee functions

  • Associate section editor: Frontiers in Immunology. Journal review: Frontiers in Immunology, Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, Lancet Infectious Diseases, Experimental Parasitology, Trends in Parasitology, Scientific Reports, Journal of Infectious Diseases, Malaria Journal, Journal of Immunology, Blood, Plos One, Infection and Immunity.

Awards

  • https://www.ey.com/da_dk/news/2022/03/danske-vaccinemagere-vinder-pris-i-vaekstkonkurrence

Scientific output

  • Among other journals author in Nature, Nature Communications, Nature Communications Biology, PLOS Pathogens, Cancer Cell, Frontiers Immunology, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Cell Death and Disease, Vaccine, Immunology, Journal of Infectious Diseases, Infection and Immunity, Trends in Parasitology.
  • https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2668-4992, Google scholar Total citations 5630, h-Index: 41, i10: 72.

Short presentation

Research: I started in the area of research concerning antigens inserted into the red blood cell membrane by the infecting Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite. The clinical manifestations of malaria are several and due to the involvement of antigens in the precipitation of the syndromes, that work was focused on elucidating the identity of the antigens expressed during the different syndromes. The aim was that a basic understanding of the interactions could provide vaccines combating specific malaria syndromes. A particular syndrome of malaria is placental malaria. Here I was involved in the first identification of the antigen causing the disease, named VAR2CSA. Subsequently efforts have been to validate this initial finding. This entailed not least developing a high throughput system to test the ability of antibodies to inhibit binding to placental receptors. This assay was instrumental in the development of a vaccine by identifying, which parts of the large antigen to include in a vaccine candidate against placental malaria, and led ultimately to enabling taking this antigen, named VAR2CSA, from discovery to human clinical trials. During the placental malaria vaccine development I set up a group with a task to increase immunogenicity of subunit vaccines, acknowledging difficulties in inducing potent and long-lasting immune responses. This group has over the last decade invested significantly in developing novel methods to deliver vaccines, resulting in proprietary virus-like particle vaccine-platforms that holds the promise to deliver virtually any complex antigen to the immune system. This technology is now licensed to the company AdaptVac that I co-founded. In addition, the carbohydrate present on placental cells enabling infected erythrocyte accumulation in the placenta is also present on the surface of the vast majority of cancer cell types. Using the ligand for this carbohydrate termed ofCS we can diagnose and treat cancer and I am currently leading the effort on how to combine ofCS targeting and immune-therapy through bi-specific antibodies in cancer potentially using the highly hyped mRNA technology. This technology is owned by the company VAR2pharmaceutica,l which I co-founded.

Teaching: I have experience in teaching as well as course planning, but my emphasis lies in educational guidance of bachelors, masters and PhD students, demonstrated by the long list of main and co-supervisor of theses. I do regular peer assessment of grants applications, is associate editor in frontiers of Immunology, but my main peer assessment experience is as a peer reviewer for scientific journals.

Societal Impact: I have been highly involved in innovation, clinical translation and building value and impact in society both by creating very successful commercial start-up companies, but also focusing on translational research in non-commercial diseases with an extremely high medial need. I have gained a lot of experience with regard to communication of research results to the public (newspaper interviews, presentations for interest organizations, radio and television broadcast) especially due to my role as the principle investigator in a Horizon Europe COVID19 vaccine project.

Organisational contribution: At the University I contribute with mentoring from the bachelor to post doc level, participating in the Board of Innovation at the department, and the board at Centre for Medical Parasitology. I played a major role in organising the relocation of our laboratory from CSS to the Mærsk Tower, the planning of how the facilities at the Mærsk Tower was set up, I was member of the user group of the Mærsk Tower for 4 years and I was manager of the laboratories of Centre for Medical Parasitology through seven years.

External funding: Apart from smaller grants I have been or is PI in three major EU grants with a combined funding of €20M. The most successful of these is the Prevent-nCoV, which lead to the support by Danish government by €108M (Funding from MoHh) for a phase 3 trial performed byBavarian Nordic. Combined funding to projects that I participated in, technology that I co-invented and investments into companies that I am co-founder of is currently more than €200M. 

 

Leadership: Both in and outside of the University my organisational skills are demonstrated by my leading or participating role in large and small research projects, founding of spin-out and board membership of companies and negotiation of licences with universities as well as small [HER2 license] and large biotech companies [COVID license]. I am motivated by the intersection between basic and translational science, the collaboration between industry and academia, Thus I have endeavoured into each of these topics with equal enthusiasm, have or is leading three prestigious EU projects leading to “first in man” studies and supervising Bachelor students alike, developing immunotherapies and vaccines for highly commercial as well as non-commercial indications purely driven by the medical need.

External positions

Chief Operating Officer, AdaptVac ApS

1 Sep 2023 → …

Keywords

  • Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
  • Malaria Immunology
  • Vaccine Development
  • Clinical Development
  • Parasite Biology
  • Cancer Cell Biology

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

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