Antibody, Epitope and Machine Learning Core

Project Summary/Abstract - Antibody, Epitope, and Machine Learning Core The overall goal of the Center is to develop vaccine candidates against prototype viruses in the bunyavirus, paramyxovirus, and picornavirus families in order to prevent future pandemics that may stem from these viral families. In support of this goal, the scientific core proposed will nominate and map epitopes for vaccine and antibody design, utilize computation and machine learning to predict both key viral antigen epitopes to target as well as how those viral antigens may evolve, and develop antibodies capable of detecting critical epitopes, which will serve as research reagents for studying prototype viruses and tracking viral evolution. These activities will support other projects in the Center by refining the choice of vaccine immunogens, providing the ability to scalably characterize which epitopes of a given antigen elicit the strongest immune responses after challenge, generating antibody panels to viral antigens to use as research reagents, and predicting how viral antigens may mutate to escape immune recognition. The capabilities of the proposed scientific core will not only provide "immediate" services that aid the Center in designing effective vaccines, they will also synergize into a "virtuous cycle" of prediction and vaccine (and antibody) development capable of anticipation in order to stay ahead of future outbreaks so that they do not become pandemics.