WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF
AI-designed universal vaccines could let us pre-empt the next pandemic instead of scrambling to react.
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In a world first, researchers at the University of Cambridge have used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop a completely new kind of vaccine. By using genetic code gathered from global virus surveillance programs, the researchers have pieced together a “Super-Antigen” using AI, capable of defending the human body from an entire family of pathogens – even if they mutate.
The vaccine has already undergone a human trial targeting coronaviruses, and the show that while the effects on the immune system were “modest” the science shows great promise as a way to quickly develop vaccines for viruses capable of pandemic-level infection.
The University of Cambridge research team used an AI model to analyse the antigens present in a family of viruses. Similar to the DNA of our cells, antigens are the parts of viruses that the immune system recognises in order to trigger an immune response.
The Future of Healthcare and Clinical Trials | SCDM, Baltimore | Futurist Matthew Griffin, by Futurist Keynote Speaker Matthew Griffin
If the immune system doesn’t recognise an antigen as hostile, then the virus can quickly replicate and cause an infection. The same can be true if a virus evolves or mutates, as the immune system won’t immediately recognise the new antigen.
"We're always behind," Prof Jonathan Heeney, from the University of Cambridge, told . "What we're trying to do is get ahead of the curve. This is about making vaccines that protect us, not just from today's viruses, but protect us from what can cause the next outbreak or disease. This is a fundamental shift in how we prepare for pandemics."
The vaccine, which could compliment some other Predictive Vaccines I’ve talked about in the past, is due to undergo a second trial involving 200 people to provide a greater understanding of the effects on the human body, and its effectiveness on tackling viral infections.
Prof Saul Faust, who performed some of the trials at the University of Southampton, said, “What's really interesting is the technology is an awful lot better at designing vaccines for potential pandemics when viruses are changing.”
Where typical vaccine development for a new virus can take upwards of a decade and hundreds of millions of dollars, there is hope that AI can help quickly develop vaccines that are safe and widely effective, reducing the need to develop highly specialised vaccines to target specific viruses, and instead develop a single vaccine to target an entire viral family.
The technology also shows promise in treating viral haemorrhagic fevers, such as the Ebola virus, as well as seasonal flu vaccines and the H5N1-bird flu virus which has the potential to evolve to infect humans, which experts predict could cause a global pandemic.
Could one AI-designed vaccine really protect against an entire family of viruses?
That is the goal — by training AI on antigens shared across a viral family, the Cambridge team is aiming for a single shot that holds up even as individual viruses mutate, though larger human trials still have to prove it.
