Nov 2022
Abstract:
Vaccines that are now in use
are based on vaccine antigens from isolates or sequences of infectious
diseases that have occurred in the past. However, many pathogens,
especially RNA viruses continuously evolve. This is evidenced by the
successive waves of variants of SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza subtypes in
animals and humans, requiring annual updates of seasonal influenza
vaccines.
The COVID-19 pandemic witnessed an accelerated
evolution of vaccine technologies to generate vaccines with a variety of
different delivery systems such as mRNA and Adenoviral vectors that we
amongst the first to be licenced for mass immunisation programmes by
many countries around the world. However, they almost exclusively based
on the first sequences Spike of SARS-CoV-2 that were made available in
the first months of the pandemic. As new waves of variants arose the
efficacy of those vaccines has steadily declined. The addition of
bivalent versions of these vaccines have added Omicron sequences of
variants that arose in the past year, again as new, different variants
have already circulated globally.
This lecture will
examine new convergent digital technologies that are utilised to develop
a new generation of vaccine antigens that provide broad protection
against multiple, divergent viruses. These vaccine antigens are designed
in such a way that they can easily be combined with new vaccine
delivery technologies that can be rapidly scaled and manufactured.
Bio:
Professor
Heeney qualified with Doctoral degrees in Veterinary Medicine, and
Veterinary Pathology in Guelph Canada. Performed his PhD at the National
Institutes of Health in the USA under the supervision of Stephen
O'Brien before becoming a Fellow in Pathology at the Stanford School of
Medicine. He received his Doctor of Science at Cambridge University, and
in 2007 established the Lab of Viral Zoonotics (LVZ) in Cambridge which
focusses on the cross-species transmission of viruses, their
co-evolution in different hosts and the immune mechanisms of disease and
disease protection. The LVZ applies the understanding of immune
correlates of protection to develop vaccines to prevent the transmission
of zoonotic infections at the animal human interface. Studies currently
focus on RNA viruses such as Coronaviruses, Influenza and Haemorrhagic
fever viruses. Translationally data on immune correlates of protection
is applied to the rational design of next generation, broadly protective
vaccines for the prevention of epidemics caused by continuously
evolving RNA viruses. He is the PI of a CEPI funded consortium to
develop Broadly Protective Beta-Coronavirus Vaccines for the prevention
of the next pandemic.