AY1AX000036
Cooperative Agreement
Overview
Grant Description
Machine learning-enabled design of norovirus and herpesvirus vaccines -
We propose a highly integrated and synergistic program to develop universal vaccine design approaches that can be broadly applied to viral and bacterial pathogens.
We will demonstrate the validity of our approaches by developing vaccines for three human herpesviruses that have remained out of reach despite efforts by many vaccine developers: HSV-1, HSV-2, and EBV.
Herpesviruses are responsible for substantial morbidity and mortality worldwide, and several of them are strongly linked to chronic illnesses including cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.
Despite their significant public health burden, there are no licensed vaccines for herpesviruses other than for varicella-zoster virus, which use approaches that cannot be generalized to other family members.
The failure of earlier vaccine development efforts is due to a lack of stabilized antigens and compatible display platforms, an incomplete understanding of the mechanisms of protection, and poor induction of mucosal immunity, which may be required for protection.
A distinguishing feature of our program is the development and application of innovative artificial intelligence (AI)-based computational methods for antigen and protein nanoparticle vaccine design.
The Baker, Dimaio, King, Lee, and Veesler labs at the University of Washington will integrate these computational and structural methods into general workflows for universal vaccine design and evaluation that can be applied to many families of viral and bacterial pathogens.
We will combine this ability with deep disease-specific expertise and high-throughput pipelines for vaccine production and evaluation, harnessing recent innovations in mRNA vaccine manufacturing to iterate between the computer and the lab to improve vaccine performance.
The Bloom lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (Fred Hutch) will use analyses of herpesvirus evolution and high-throughput deep mutational scanning to inform vaccine design and evaluation.
The Georgiou and Lavinder group at the University of Texas at Austin are experts in B cell immunology and antibody repertoire analyses and will comprehensively characterize humoral responses to herpesvirus infection and vaccination.
The Leib lab at Dartmouth and the Lund and McGuire labs at the Fred Hutch are experts in evaluating novel herpesvirus vaccine candidates and will use key animal models established in their laboratories to develop workflows that enable the rapid and comprehensive evaluation of immune responses elicited by our program’s novel AI-designed vaccines.
Our program will define the determinants of protective immunity against herpesvirus infection, identify universal vaccine design approaches and computational design methodologies that can be applied across diverse viral families, and clinically de-risk vaccine candidates for three herpesviruses with major global health burdens.
We emphasize that the integrated AI-based vaccine design approaches and experimental workflows developed as part of this program will broadly generalize to other vaccine design challenges in the future.
We propose a highly integrated and synergistic program to develop universal vaccine design approaches that can be broadly applied to viral and bacterial pathogens.
We will demonstrate the validity of our approaches by developing vaccines for three human herpesviruses that have remained out of reach despite efforts by many vaccine developers: HSV-1, HSV-2, and EBV.
Herpesviruses are responsible for substantial morbidity and mortality worldwide, and several of them are strongly linked to chronic illnesses including cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.
Despite their significant public health burden, there are no licensed vaccines for herpesviruses other than for varicella-zoster virus, which use approaches that cannot be generalized to other family members.
The failure of earlier vaccine development efforts is due to a lack of stabilized antigens and compatible display platforms, an incomplete understanding of the mechanisms of protection, and poor induction of mucosal immunity, which may be required for protection.
A distinguishing feature of our program is the development and application of innovative artificial intelligence (AI)-based computational methods for antigen and protein nanoparticle vaccine design.
The Baker, Dimaio, King, Lee, and Veesler labs at the University of Washington will integrate these computational and structural methods into general workflows for universal vaccine design and evaluation that can be applied to many families of viral and bacterial pathogens.
We will combine this ability with deep disease-specific expertise and high-throughput pipelines for vaccine production and evaluation, harnessing recent innovations in mRNA vaccine manufacturing to iterate between the computer and the lab to improve vaccine performance.
The Bloom lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (Fred Hutch) will use analyses of herpesvirus evolution and high-throughput deep mutational scanning to inform vaccine design and evaluation.
The Georgiou and Lavinder group at the University of Texas at Austin are experts in B cell immunology and antibody repertoire analyses and will comprehensively characterize humoral responses to herpesvirus infection and vaccination.
The Leib lab at Dartmouth and the Lund and McGuire labs at the Fred Hutch are experts in evaluating novel herpesvirus vaccine candidates and will use key animal models established in their laboratories to develop workflows that enable the rapid and comprehensive evaluation of immune responses elicited by our program’s novel AI-designed vaccines.
Our program will define the determinants of protective immunity against herpesvirus infection, identify universal vaccine design approaches and computational design methodologies that can be applied across diverse viral families, and clinically de-risk vaccine candidates for three herpesviruses with major global health burdens.
We emphasize that the integrated AI-based vaccine design approaches and experimental workflows developed as part of this program will broadly generalize to other vaccine design challenges in the future.
Awardee
Funding Goals
THE PURPOSE OF THIS PROGRAM IS TO COORDINATE THE ACCELERATION OF BIOMEDICAL AND HEALTH BREAKTHROUGHS TO DELIVER TRANSFORMATIVE, SUSTAINABLE, AND EQUITABLE HEALTH SOLUTIONS FOR EVERYONE BY (A) FACILITATING COLLABORATION BETWEEN ADVANCE RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY FOR HEALTH AND OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES, RELEVANT INDUSTRIES, ACADEMIA, AND OTHER PERSONS, WITH RESPECT TO ADVANCE HIGH-POTENTIAL, HIGH IMPACT BIOMEDICAL AND HEALTH RESEARCH THAT CANNOT BE READILY ACCOMPLISHED THROUGH TRADITIONAL RESEARCH AND COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY, (B) IDENTIFYING AND PROMOTING REVOLUTIONARY ADVANCED IN HEALTH SCIENCES, (C) PROMOTING HIGH REWARD INNOVATION TO DEVELOP HIGH NEED CURES (D) ENSURING THAT THE UNITED STATES MAINTAINS, GLOBAL LEADERSHIP AND SCIENCE AND INNOVATION AND THE HIGHEST QUALITY OF LIFE AND HEALTH FOR ITS CITIZENS.
Grant Program (CFDA)
Awarding / Funding Agency
Place of Performance
Washington
United States
Geographic Scope
State-Wide
University Of Washington was awarded
AI-Driven Universal Vaccine Design for Herpesviruses
Cooperative Agreement AY1AX000036
worth $29,978,323
from the National Institutes of Health in August 2024 with work to be completed primarily in Washington United States.
The grant
has a duration of 5 years and
was awarded through assistance program 93.384 ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY for HEALTH (ARPA-H).
The Cooperative Agreement was awarded through grant opportunity Antigens Predicted for Broad Viral Efficacy through Computational Experimentation (APECx).
Status
(Ongoing)
Last Modified 4/21/25
Period of Performance
8/27/24
Start Date
8/26/29
End Date
Funding Split
$30.0M
Federal Obligation
$0.0
Non-Federal Obligation
$30.0M
Total Obligated
Activity Timeline
Subgrant Awards
Disclosed subgrants for AY1AX000036
Transaction History
Modifications to AY1AX000036
Additional Detail
Award ID FAIN
AY1AX000036
SAI Number
AY1AX000036-2977522353
Award ID URI
SAI UNAVAILABLE
Awardee Classifications
Public/State Controlled Institution Of Higher Education
Awarding Office
75N992 ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY FOR HEALTH (ARPA-H)
Funding Office
75N992 ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY FOR HEALTH (ARPA-H)
Awardee UEI
HD1WMN6945W6
Awardee CAGE
1HEX5
Performance District
WA-90
Senators
Maria Cantwell
Patty Murray
Patty Murray
Modified: 4/21/25