Artificial Intelligence Helps Identify T-cell Targets for Development of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine

A neoantigen prediction platform that employs state-of-the-art bioinformatics and artificial intelligence (AI) to identify an optimal set of neoantigens as targets for cancer vaccines or adoptive cell therapies is being used for the development of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.

The neoantigen prediction platform called ArdImmune Vax has been developed by Ardigen (Kraków, Poland) and is very well suited for the design of vaccines for infectious diseases. The core of the platform is a proprietary algorithm capable of predicting neoantigens' probability to elicit an immune response.

ArdImmune has now entered into a research collaboration with COVID-19 Vaccine Corporation (CVC Auckland; New Zealand) aimed at the development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. The joint research enables CVC to benefit from Ardigen's vaccine design technology by selecting which viral epitopes are the most suitable to boost cellular immune response. Complementing humoral and cellular response in the vaccine design is expected to result in two strong lines of defense against the coronavirus. This approach is likely to be more effective than vaccines designed to create antibodies alone.

"We are thrilled to help global efforts to mitigate COVID-19 applying our breakthrough technology powered by artificial intelligence, reducing the vaccine design phase to a few weeks," said Janusz Homa, CEO of Ardigen.

"CVC is excited to be working with Ardigen who are at the forefront of T-cell epitope design. The collaboration gives us the best chance of our product inducing an effective T-cell response against SARS-Cov-2," said Robert Feldman, CEO and Co-founder of CVC.

Related Links:
Ardigen
COVID-19 Vaccine Corporation