Inga Hitzeroth | Biopharming Research Unit

E-mail:inga.hitzeroth@uct.ac.za | Telephone: +27 21 650 5712 | Facsimile: +27 21 650 2646

I grew up in Namibia and studied in South Africa at the University of Cape Town in Cape Town from 1980 - 1986. I did my undergraduate studies in Microbiology and Biochemistry and my PhD on hake population genetics while working for Sea Fisheries in Cape Town. My post-doctoral years I spent at medical school at UCT working on gonadotropin releasing hormone. In 2000 I started to work in Prof Rybicki’s group in a then very new and novel field of expression of viral proteins in plants.

We are specifically working on production of vaccine candidates against Human papillomavirus (HPV) and development of second generation vaccines that will be cheaper by production in plants and will protect against more than one type of HPV. HPV is the cause of cervical cancer the second most prevalent cancer in women in developing countries.
Other diseases that we are working on are: rotavirus, which causes severe diarrhoea in children; Beak and Feather Disease Virus (BFDV) which causes Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease (PBFD) in all psittacine birds (parrots); and Avian influenza.
The research that I have been involved in over the last thirteen years has come a long way from just being an idea to produce viral proteins in plants to becoming a reality with proteins being expressed in high enough levels to make it feasible to produce them as vaccines.

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Plant Produced PCV Pseudovirion (2018)
Rybicki, Edward Peter. Hitzeroth, Inga Isabel, Regnard, Guy Louis, PA169568/P
Provisional and PCT filed 2019, National phase ZA, US

Extracellular Assembly of Virus Like Particles (2020)
Dennis, Susan Jennifer, Meyers, Ann Elizabeth, Hitzeroth, Inga Isabel, Rybicki, Edward Peter PA172961/P 
Provisional filed

Plant Produced Bovine Papillomavirus Virus-Like Particles and Pseudovirions (2020)
Rybicki, Edward Peter; Van Zyl, Albertha René, Hitzeroth, Inga Isabel; Pietersen, Inge PA173571/P
Provisional filed in ZA and GB

Expression of viral proteins in plants – HPV (2005)
A Williamson, EP Rybicki, JM Maclean, II Becker-Hitzeroth, PA139480, US20130130314A1, EP2374892A2
Granted in China, Germany, Europe, Spain, France, United Kingdom, India, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, US, SA.

Expression of viral proteins in plants – Flu (2009)
A Williamson, EP Rybicki, JM Maclean, II Becker-Hitzeroth, PA139480, WO2006119516A2, EP1883701B1
Granted in US, China, SA, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, United Kingdom, Greece, India, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and validated in Europe.

HPV Chimaeric Particle (small VLP) (2011)
EP Rybicki, II Hitzeroth, PA154565, US20140377367A1, EP2785842A4
Filed in Philippines, Europe, Thailand, Canada, Australia, SA, Japan, Korea, United Arab Emirates, Israel, India, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Malaysia, Viet Nam, Hong Kong, Japan.
Granted in US, China, Russia, New Zealand

Production of a Horseradish Peroxidase-IgG Fusion Protein (2016)
EP Rybicki, II Hitzeroth, EA Meyers, PA165327, WO2017203426A1
Filed in ZA, GB, EP, CN, JP, US

HPV Pseudovirions (2013)
EP Rybicki, II Hitzeroth PA158146, EP3024937, US20160168583A1
Granted in ZA, US, EP, DE, filed in FR, GB, ES, IT, CA, PC

Rotavirus Virus-like particle production in plants (2012)
EP Rybicki, II Hitzeroth, DLR Mutepfa EP2847324B1 (PCT No WO2013166609A1)
Filed in US, Korea, 
Granted in Europe, China, Canada, Denmark, Spain
Applicant Medicago

Recombinant protein bodies as immunogen-specific adjuvants (2008)
EP Rybicki, AE Meyers, F Devesa, P Marzábal Luna, II Hitzeroth, P Öhlschläger; PCT No WO2010040847A3, EP2356133A2, KR20110084906A, JP5667062B2
Filed in Europe, Korea 
Granted in Japan, US
Applicant ERA Biotech

Local collaborators
Prof. Vernon Coyne and Prof. Jill Farrant MCB, UCT
Carryn Fenner, Afrigen, South Africa
Dr Thanos Kotsiopoulos, Chemical Engineering, UCT
Dr Georgia Schafer, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM), UCT

International collaborators 
Prof. Bhudev Das, Amity Institute of Molecular Medicine & Stem Cell Research (AIMMSCR), Amity University Uttar Pradesh, India
Assoc. Prof. Priya Debata, Department of Zoology, North Orissa University, Baripada, India; 
Prof. Hu Zheng, Department of Gynecological Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangdong, China; 
Prof. Konstantin Severinov, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russia; 
Dr Tomas Moravec, Laboratory of Virology, Institute of Experimental Botany, Prague, Czech Republic; 
Dr Sanjay Ram and Dr Aleyo Chabeda, Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, USA.
Markus Sack, Aachen, Germany; 
Prof. Peter Öhlschläger, Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Aachen, Germany; 
Milaid Granadillo and Isis Torrens, Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Havana, Cuba; 
Prof. Eva Stöger and Elsa Arcalís, Department of Applied Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria; 
Dr Marc-Andre D’Aoust, Medicago, Quebec, Canada;
 

BRU eNCA news clip
This is a short clip from eNCA news in February 2016, describing the making of human papillomavirus pseudovirions in plants by the University of Cape Town's Biopharming Research Unit. This follows a press release on the publication of a paper describing the achievement in the journal, Nature Scientific Reports.

Bru: The Movie!

Front page article in SA Journal of Science September/October 2013