Bioengineering towards self-assembly of particulate vaccines

•The diversity and immunological properties of particulate vaccines are outlined.•Naturally self-assembling structures and uses as vaccines are described.•Bioengineering concepts for particulate vaccines are proposed.•Protein coated polyhydoxyalkanoate inclusions offer a unique vaccine design space.•Design of particulate vaccines for the desired immune response is proposed.

There is an unmet demand for safe and efficient vaccines for prevention of various infectious diseases. Subunit vaccines comprise selected pathogen specific antigens are a safe alternative to whole organism vaccines. However they often lack immunogenicity. Natural and synthetic self-assembling polymers and proteins will be reviewed in view their use to encapsulate and/or display antigens to serve as immunogenic antigen carriers for induction of protective immunity. Recent advances made in in vivo assembly of antigen-displaying polyester inclusions will be a focus. Particulate vaccines are inherently immunogenic due to enhanced uptake by antigen presenting cells which process antigens mediating adaptive immune responses. Bioengineering approaches enable the design of tailor-made particulate vaccines to fine tune immune responses towards protective immunity.