Kazeem Akolawole
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the Institute for Drug Discovery, Leipzig University, have announced a partnership to expand artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms using the Rosetta Macromolecular Modelling platform to speed up development of future vaccines against novel viral threats, also known as Disease X.
CEPI disclosed that it will provide up to US$1.9 million to Leipzig University, a leader in the use of AI for protein design to adapt their AI technology to analyse the structures of viruses from 10 priority viral families from which the next Disease X could emerge. They will initially focus on paramyxoviruses and arenaviruses, which include the likes of Nipah virus and Lassa virus, respectively.
The Leipzig University team will then identify potential antigenic targets and develop virtual antigen designs that could be adapted to rapidly create vaccine candidates for clinical assessment. To inform prioritisation of viral families with epidemic or pandemic risk, CEPI partnered with University of California, Davis, in November 2022, to support application of AI to expand their “SpillOver” platform.
Preparation of pathogen targets and vaccines through pre-clinical and clinical testing, before an outbreak of a novel pathogen, will streamline the development of future vaccine candidates against Disease X, potentially within 100 days of identification. This effort to compress pandemic vaccine development down to just 100 days is known as “The 100 Days Mission” and has been embraced by the G7 and G20.
Achieving the 100 Days Mission would give the world a fighting shot to stop the next pandemic-causing Disease X in its tracks. For its part, CEPI has a $3.5 billion strategy that, over the next 5 years, will kickstart and coordinate the work necessary to achieve this mission.
A critical enabler of the 100 Days Mission is the establishment of a “Vaccine Library”. Fewer than 300 viruses are known to be able to infect people, and only a small fraction of these have pandemic potential. The viruses known to infect humans all derive from about 25 viral families.
CEPI’s aim is to store antigen designs developed by Leipzig University in a Vaccine Library so they can be quickly used to develop vaccine candidates in the event of an outbreak of a novel pathogenic threat. In this scenario, these antigen designs could be taken “off the shelf”, gene sequences for which could then be inserted into an appropriate rapid-response vaccine platform to start production of vaccines for clinical testing.
“The creation of a Vaccine Library is a huge task and cannot be achieved by any one country or organization working alone. It will require countries that fund the development of medical countermeasures to coordinate their investments, and to share data and information when a viral outbreak with pandemic potential occurs.
The Chief Executive Officer, CEPI, Dr. Richard Hatchett, said recent advances in AI technology have made it possible to quickly and effectively model potential viral vaccine targets. Creating an accessible repository of these AI-generated antigen designs is a critical first step in creating such a vaccine library, the benefits of which would be game changing.”
