EPFL scientists have developed a new computational approach to create artificial proteins, which showed promising results in vivo as functional vaccines. This approach opens the possibility to engineer safer and more effective vaccines.
Vaccines are one of the most effective interventions to prevent the spreading of infectious diseases. They trigger the immune system to produce antibodies that protect us against infection. However, we still lack efficacious vaccines for many important pathogens, like the flu or dengue fever. “When a vaccine doesn’t work well, we tend to think that it’s because the antibodies produced are not protective,” says Bruno Correia, a professor at the Laboratory of Protein Design & Immunoengineering (LPDI) in EPFL’s School of Engineering. “It’s usually because our immune system is simply making the wrong type of antibodies”. Scientists in Correia’s lab have now developed a strategy to design artificial proteins that very precisely instruct the body’s immune system which antibodies to produce. The study has been published in the journal Science.
Building proteins like Legos
The EPFL team created artificial proteins designed using computational methods. “They don’t exist in nature,” says Che Yang, a PhD student and co-leading author in the study.
“We developed a protein design algorithm called TopoBuilder. It lets you construct proteins virtually as if you were putting Lego bricks together. Assembling artificial proteins that have novel functions is absolutely fascinating.” says Fabian Sesterhenn, a PhD student and co-leading author.
A disease without a vaccine
Correia’s team focused on the design of de novo proteins that can result in a vaccine for the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). RSV causes serious lung infections and is a leading cause of hospitalization in infants and the elderly, “Despite several decades of research, up to today there is still no vaccine or cure for respiratory syncytial virus,” says Correia.
Image Credit: EPFL
Thanks to Heinz V. Hoenen. Follow him on twitter: @HeinzVHoenen
News This Week
US records 5 million COVID-19 cases as almost 20 million infected worldwide
he United States has recorded 5 million confirmed coronavirus cases, while almost 20 million people are infected worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. Outside of the US, Brazil recorded more than 3 million cases, [...]
90 per cent of recovered COVID-19 patients in Wuhan suffering from lung damage
According to the first phase results, 90 per cent of the patients'lungs are still in a damaged state, which means their lungs ventilation and gas exchange functions have not recovered 90% of an example [...]
MIT’s machine learning designed a COVID-19 vaccine that could cover a lot more people
There are currently 25 vaccines to fight COVID-19 in clinical evaluation, another 139 vaccines in a pre-clinical stage, and many more being researched. But many of those vaccines, if they are at all successful, might [...]
Gold nanosensor spots difference between Dengue, Zika
A new class of nanosensor developed in Brazil could more accurately identify dengue and Zika infections, a task that is complicated by their genetic similarities and which can result in misdiagnosis. The technique uses [...]
We Are Mutating Coronavirus, but It Is Evolving Back
Scientists investigating the evolution of the virus that causes Covid19 say that its mutation seems to be directed by human proteins that degrade it, but natural selection of the virus enables it to bounce [...]
Novel Drug Delivery Particles Use Neurotransmitters as a ‘Passport’ Into the Brain
Biomedical engineers at the Tufts University School of Engineering have developed tiny lipid-based nanoparticles that incorporate neurotranmitters to help carry drugs, large molecules, and even gene editing proteins across the blood-brain barrier and into [...]
Artificial Intelligence Allows Rapid COVID-19 Lung Imaging Analysis
UC San Diego recently announced that its health radiologists and other physicians are now leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to augment lung-imaging analysis in a clinical research study aimed at COVID-19 lung imaging analysis. The cause of [...]
Second Coronavirus Strain May Be More Infectious—but Some Scientists Are Skeptical
The hubbub around mutations in the virus that causes COVID-19—and how they might make it more infectious—has been around since the early phase of the pandemic. A preprint study about a particular mutation involving [...]
Oxford vaccine: Early trials suggest “double protection” from coronavirus
Human trials of a potential coronavirus vaccine being developed by scientists in Oxford are reported to have shown promising results. The researchers believe they have made a breakthrough after discovering the jab could provide “double protection” [...]
COVID: Engineers design a reusable, silicone rubber face mask
Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have designed a new face mask that they believe could stop viral particles as effectively as N95 masks. Unlike N95 masks, the new masks were designed [...]
Warning of serious brain disorders in people with mild coronavirus symptoms
Doctors may be missing signs of serious and potentially fatal brain disorders triggered by coronavirus, as they emerge in mildly affected or recovering patients, scientists have warned. Neurologists are on Wednesday publishing details of [...]
Nanoparticles Offer a Promising Way for Treating Cancer, Liver Disorders
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have developed a safer and more efficient way to deliver a promising new method for treating cancer and liver disorders and for vaccination -- including a COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna [...]
Covid-19 vaccines may be stifled by pre-existing antibodies
Despite its advantages over other vaccine technologies for Covid-19, adenovirus vector vaccines are likely to be tripped up by pre-existing antibodies to the vectors used and the need for a second injection to boost [...]
This coronavirus mutation has taken over the world. Scientists are trying to understand why.
When the first coronavirus cases in Chicago appeared in January, they bore the same genetic signatures as a germ that emerged in China weeks before. But as Egon Ozer, an infectious-disease specialist at the Northwestern University [...]
Online Special Edition “NanoScientific Symposium on Nano Applications”
Park Systems presents “NanoScientific Symposium on Nano Applications for a Changing World” sponsored by Physics World and Nanotechnology World Association. Park Systems launched this online event for researchers and scientists in nanoscience and nanotechnology [...]
Medical nanotechnology research for COVID-19
Notwithstanding the wishful thinking of certain irresponsible and incompetent public figures, the only options to control and deal with the spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are fast, cheap, reliable, [...]
