Development of Broad Coronavirus Immunity Targeting the Fusion Peptide

Project Summary This revised application was originally responding to the Emergency Award 'Rapid Investigation of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)' submitted through PAR-20-177. However, we are submitting the revised application, upon advice from NIH, to the parent PA-20-195 with a due date of Nov 16th 2020. The application is titled 'Development of Broad Coronavirus Immunity Targeting the Fusion Peptide'. The assembled team brings together highly complementary expertise in order to develop a unique coronavirus vaccine approach to provide more effective, focused and broadened humoral immunity. This proposal focuses on the fusion peptide site of vulnerability as it has been understudied, it is highly conserved and recently been identified as an epitope of neutralizing antibodies in human convalescent sera. The project aims are: (1) Develop pan-coronavirus fusion peptide nanoparticle and trimer immunogens (2) Develop immunization regimes to induce broadly neutralizing antibodies using nucleic acid delivery.