Discovery
Pillar objectives
Pillar 1 focuses on discovering and formulating vaccines and monoclonal antibodies (H-mAbs) to prevent and treat infectious diseases with pandemic potential and aims to develop vaccines ready for large-scale deployment.
WP4 Vaccine technology platforms (Lead: FBS; Partners involved: IP, ZEPAI, TiHO)
- Optimise RNA platform and advance a central RNA analytical laboratory to develop and validate analytical assays for RNA-based products
- Implement viral vectors with proven efficacy in preclinical models and tested in clinical settings for various diseases
- Implement protein-based vaccines and adjuvants
WP5 H-mAbs (Lead: FBS; Partners involved: UNISI, IP, UHC, IZSVe)
- Isolate and characterise effective monoclonal antibodies (H-mAbs) from the blood of people convalescent or vaccinated
- Test selected H-mAbs by in vitro and in vivo assays and use latest AI-based technologies to support the design of new vaccines
WP6 Antigen discovery and design (Lead: FBS; Partners involved: IP, UMR, UT)
- Develop pipelines and technologies for the discovery, characterisation and design of vaccine antigens targeting emerging pathogens
- Apply AI to design antigens that are stable, well-expressed, and capable of inducing broad and long-lasting protection against target pathogens and their variants
• Led by Fondazione Biotecnopolo di Siena (FBS, Italy)
• Pillar 1 Leader: Rino Rappuoli (FBS)