New AI vaccine could stop future pandemics, Cambridge researchers say
The vaccine's been shown to trigger immunity to coronavirus and other viruses
Last updated 3 hours ago
Scientists in Cambridge say a new vaccine designed with artificial intelligence could protect against whole families of viruses.
The jab, developed at the University of Cambridge, has been shown to trigger immunity to coronaviruses and related viruses in early trials.
The method could prevent pandemics before they begin, saving millions of lives and helping countries avoid lockdowns, researchers said.
“What that Covid pandemic taught us is how fast we can make vaccines, but we’re still using the old paradigm," Professor Jonathan Heeney, from the lab of viral zoonotics at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine, said.
“This is about making one vaccine that will get them all based on their relationships.”
World-first trial
The “super-antigen” is developed by using machine learning that analyses past and current outbreaks to determine what is essential for viruses to survive.
A world-first human trial has shown that a coronavirus vaccine made using the technology is safe, with more than 200 people set to be recruited for a phase two study.
Current vaccines use antigens from specific strains of virus that have already been detected in humans.
However, the universal Sarbeco coronavirus vaccine, developed by the University of Cambridge and biotechnology company DIOSynVax, brings together features that are common in the whole family of viruses.
This is done by researchers taking all available genetic sequence data on coronaviruses logged by surveillance programmes around the world to create a “super antigen”.
“This is about making one vaccine that will get them all based on their relationships,” Mr Heeney said.
“It not only predicts, but it targets what is essential for that virus family.
"We’re targeting something in a virus family, which the virus can’t change easily.”
Vaccine 'game changer'
A phase one trial saw 49 healthy volunteers from Cambridge and Southampton aged between 18 and 50-years-old take the vaccine through a micro fluid jet, which uses a thin stream of liquid to push vaccine blueprints into skin cells.
A phase I trial, published in the Journal of Infection, included 49 healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 50 who had the vaccine in Cambridge and Southampton.
Researchers found the jab is safe and that it triggered an immune response to not only SARS-CoV-2 and SARS, but to related bat viruses that could jump from animals to humans.
Mr Heeney hopes the technology can be a "game changer" that makes vaccines "far better, broader, and give more robust protection against variants of viruses, such as ebola.
“There’s a lot of viruses out there, and once we know them, we start chasing them, but we have to change that paradigm,” he said.
“It’s about making vaccines that not just protect us from today’s viruses, but the ones that haven’t yet happened."
Bird flu vaccine
The team is also looking to advance on a vaccine for bird flu, which Prof Heeney described as a “big global threat.
“This is because this bird flu virus is all around the world, on most continents, not only impacting birds, but also mammals and humans, and it’s even in the food chain in America, in milk," he added.
“So it’s about making sure that our technology can get whatever is going to pop up and protect us, and to get ahead of that curve, instead of chasing it.”