Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed the first entirely AI-designed vaccine, which targets entire virus families and has successfully completed a Phase I human trial showing safety and broad immune response.
Current vaccines are designed against single strains, and as they constantly mutate, the vaccines go out of date. However, instead of analyzing a current strain of a virus, the team at Cambridge had AI design a “super-antigen.” By feeding artificial intelligence genetic codes of different strains of coronaviruses, it created this super-antigen that could prepare the immune system for a whole family of viruses, including those transmitted by animals.
# AI-designed vaccine goes to human trial in world first
Source: [https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/ai-designed-vaccine-goes-to-human-trial-in-world-first-3371992/](https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/ai-designed-vaccine-goes-to-human-trial-in-world-first-3371992/)
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Researchers at the University of Cambridge have used AI to develop a new type of vaccine to protect against viruses and prevent pandemics\.
This “fundamentally new” type of vaccine, in which AI designed the entire active component, is built to prepare the immune system for families of viruses\.
Current vaccines are designed against single strains, and as they constantly mutate, the vaccines go out of date\. However, instead of analyzing a current strain of a virus, the team at Cambridge had AI design a “super\-antigen\.”
By feeding artificial intelligence genetic codes of different strains of coronaviruses, it created this super\-antigen that could prepare the immune system for a whole family of viruses, including those transmitted by animals\.
“This is about making one vaccine that will get them all based on their relationships,” said Cambridge’s Professor Jonathan Heeney\. “It not only predicts, but it targets what is essential for that virus family\. We’re targeting something in a virus family, which the virus can’t change easily\.”
Joseph Mendoza via Wikimedia commons## AI vaccine has successful human trial
This is the first time an entirely AI\-designed vaccine has entered human trials\. The first trial \(published in the[Journal of Infection](https://www.journalofinfection.com/article/S0163-4453(26)00084-8/fulltext)\) included 39 healthy volunteers and showed the vaccine is safe\. It triggered immune responses to SARS\-CoV\-2, SARS, and also bat\-related viruses that could cause future pandemics\.
Next, they’re taking it to phase II with more than 200 volunteers\.
Speaking to the[BBC](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crrpggegwe0o), Professor Andy Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, who wasn’t part of this study, said that using artificial intelligence in researching vaccines will be a “game changer\.”
## Related
He said that AI tools being able to predict how immune systems will respond to viruses would speed up development and “save lives\.”
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