CPI, Caltech, University of Oxford, Ingenza - Broadly Protective Coronavirus Vaccine

Up to $30m funding will be provided to advance an innovative vaccine technology that could protect against current and future SARS-CoV-2 variants and other SARS-like Betacoronaviruses. New peer-reviewed research, out today in Science, demonstrates the vaccine platform provides protection against a spectrum of SARS-like Betacoronaviruses in preclinical models. This is the eleventh award to be made by CEPI as part of its broadly protective coronavirus vaccine programme, making the coalition a global leader in all-in-one coronavirus vaccine research. Jul 5, 2022 'Äî The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has partnered with a consortium of research and technological institutions to develop a novel vaccine to provide protection against COVID-19 caused by current and future SARS-CoV-2 variants, as well as to protect against other SARS-like Betacoronaviruses*. The project will be led in manufacturing efforts by UK-based deep tech innovation organisation CPI to advance the novel vaccine developed at Caltech and The University of Oxford, and manufactured using microbes engineered by industrial biotechnology leader, Ingenza Ltd. CEPI will provide up to US $30 million to support the development of the vaccine through Phase I trials, including preclinical work, with the aim to establish first-in-human clinical proof of concept for the vaccine. The funding will also support the design of the vaccine and regulatory activities. Recognising the risk of future coronavirus threats, CEPI has established itself as the global leader in funding all-in-one coronavirus vaccine research. This is the eleventh award to be made as part of CEPI's US $200 million programme supporting projects that could provide broad protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants and other Betacoronaviruses. CEPI also today announced another broadly protective coronavirus vaccine partnership with Codiak Biosciences. The programme is a central part of CEPI's innovative US $3.5 billion pandemic preparedness plan that seeks to reduce, or even eliminate, the threat of future pandemics. An innovative coronavirus-fighting technology Many COVID-19 vaccine candidates work by presenting fragments of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (known as the receptor-binding domain, or RBD) to the body to generate an immune response. However, newly arising SARS-CoV-2 variants, such as various forms of Omicron, are increasingly able to evade the original vaccine's immune response. Changeable regions of their RBDs have been mutated in ways that allow them to escape from the original immune response. By contrast, this new vaccine aims to create immunity to known and future strains simultaneously is designed to focus the immune response on parts of RBD shared by all viruses in the SARS-like Betacoronavirus family, including future variants. It does this by presenting spike protein fragment RBDs from SARS-CoV-2 together with RBDs from seven other different types of coronaviruses on protein nanoparticles termed "mosaic-8" nanoparticles. These coronavirus RBDs are attached to a nanoparticle by protein tags, enabling the structure to display fragments from multiple viruses on a single nanoparticle. The nanoparticle contains a protein "glue" on its surface that attaches to engineered coronavirus fragments like 'Äòvelcro,' an innovative approach to permanently link proteins to each other. Supporting this approach, new research published today in Science, demonstrates that this mosaic-8 nanoparticle vaccine technology elicits protective immune responses in preclinical models against SARS-like Betacoronaviruses with components displayed on the mosaic nanoparticle as well as coronaviruses from which no components were displayed. This included SARS-like Betacoronaviruses seen in animals with the potential to spillover to humans. These findings suggest that the technology may also provide protection against future novel SARS-CoV-2 variants and as-yet-undiscovered coronaviruses that could transfer into the human population in the future.