U19AI171399

AI-Driven Structure-Enabled Antiviral Platform (ASAP) - Project Summary/Abstract

Overall, SARS-CoV-2 continues to cause severe morbidity and mortality in the ongoing pandemic. Future RNA virus epidemics and pandemics are inevitable. New clinical-trial-ready antivirals are urgently needed for RNA viruses with pandemic potential. COVID-19 has further underscored the need for early, global access to clinic-ready compounds. Beyond coronaviruses, flaviviruses and picornaviruses also cause frequent and ongoing epidemics worldwide and have no effective therapeutics. Maintaining a portfolio of novel, clinic-ready therapeutics is critical for our future pandemic preparedness.

The AI-Driven Structure-Enabled Antiviral Platform (ASAP) AVIDD Center will develop novel chemical assets that have antiviral activity against three target viral families. ASAP will leverage state-of-the-art structure-enabled technologies capable of leveraging recent advances in AI/ML and computational chemistry in identifying, enabling, and prosecuting discovery campaigns against novel viral targets. ASAP is built on principles of open science and rapid dissemination, enabled by a dedicated data infrastructure core. ASAP builds on the successful COVID Moonshot, an open science collaboration that recently secured $11 million from the Wellcome Trust via the WHO Access to COVID Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) to fund preclinical development of a novel oral noncovalent SARS-CoV-2 antiviral acting against the main protease (MPro). Beginning with a high-throughput X-ray fragment screen, the discovery team spent just 18 months and $1M to reach the preclinical phase.

ASAP will mirror this rapid, cost-efficient approach, utilizing various resources and expertise. These include automated structural biology at Diamond Light Source (Frank von Delft), AI/ML synthesis models from PostEra (Alpha Lee), nanoscale chemistry and covalent fragment libraries from Nir London, massively distributed free energy calculations on Folding@home (John Chodera), an industrial medicinal chemistry team led by MedChemica (Ed Griffen), and antiviral assays and virology expertise at Mount Sinai (Kris White; Adolfo Garcia-Sastre). ASAP augments this seasoned antiviral discovery team with new approaches to resistance-robust targeting (Karla Kirkegaard and Matt Bogyo, Stanford) and deep mutational scanning (Jesse Bloom, Fred Hutch). ASAP is supported by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) (PI Ben Perry) and has received letters of support from Takeda, Pfizer, Novartis, and Grupo Insud.

ASAP Impact: ASAP will become the nexus of a robust global antiviral discovery community. Our open science approach focuses on ensuring global, equitable access to therapeutics to combat future pandemics. We aim to produce a robust antiviral pipeline consisting of 3 new Phase I ready candidates, 6 lead optimization campaigns, 9 fragment-to-lead campaigns, and 10 structure-enabled resistance-robust viral targets. Our associated data packages will accelerate follow-on development and investment.

Sloan-Kettering Institute For Cancer Research

TO ASSIST PUBLIC AND PRIVATE NONPROFIT INSTITUTIONS AND INDIVIDUALS TO ESTABLISH, EXPAND AND IMPROVE BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH AND RESEARCH TRAINING IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND RELATED AREAS, TO CONDUCT DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH, TO PRODUCE AND TEST RESEARCH MATERIALS. TO ASSIST PUBLIC, PRIVATE AND COMMERCIAL INSTITUTIONS TO CONDUCT DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH, TO PRODUCE AND TEST RESEARCH MATERIALS, TO PROVIDE RESEARCH SERVICES AS REQUIRED BY THE AGENCY FOR PROGRAMS IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES, AND CONTROLLING DISEASE CAUSED BY INFECTIOUS OR PARASITIC AGENTS, ALLERGIC AND IMMUNOLOGIC DISEASES AND RELATED AREAS. PROJECTS RANGE FROM STUDIES OF MICROBIAL PHYSIOLOGY AND ANTIGENIC STRUCTURE TO COLLABORATIVE TRIALS OF EXPERIMENTAL DRUGS AND VACCINES, MECHANISMS OF RESISTANCE TO ANTIBIOTICS AS WELL AS RESEARCH DEALING WITH EPIDEMIOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS IN HOSPITALIZED PATIENTS OR COMMUNITY POPULATIONS AND PROGRESS IN ALLERGIC AND IMMUNOLOGIC DISEASES. BECAUSE OF THIS DUAL FOCUS, THE PROGRAM ENCOMPASSES BOTH BASIC RESEARCH AND CLINICAL RESEARCH. SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH (SBIR) PROGRAM EXPANDS AND IMPROVES PRIVATE SECTOR PARTICIPATION IN BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH. THE SBIR PROGRAM INTENDS TO INCREASE AND FACILITATE PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATIONS DERIVED FROM FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, TO INCREASE SMALL BUSINESS PARTICIPATION IN FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, AND TO FOSTER AND ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION OF SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION. THE SMALL BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER (STTR) PROGRAM STIMULATES AND FOSTERS SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION THROUGH COOPERATIVE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CARRIED OUT BETWEEN SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS, TO FOSTER TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER BETWEEN SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS, TO INCREASE PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATIONS DERIVED FROM FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, AND TO FOSTER AND ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION OF SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION. RESEARCH CAREER DEVELOPMENT AWARDS SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENTISTS DURING THE FORMATIVE STAGES OF THEIR CAREERS. INDIVIDUAL NATIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE AWARDS (NRSAS) ARE MADE DIRECTLY TO APPROVE APPLICANTS FOR RESEARCH TRAINING IN SPECIFIED BIOMEDICAL SHORTAGE AREAS. IN ADDITION, INSTITUTIONAL NATIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE AWARDS ARE MADE TO ENABLE INSTITUTIONS TO SELECT AND MAKE AWARDS TO INDIVIDUALS TO RECEIVE TRAINING UNDER THE AEGIS OF THEIR INSTITUTIONAL PROGRAM.

93.855 - Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) [HHS - NIH]

New York United States

State-Wide

Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Centers for Pathogens of Pandemic Concern (U19 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) (RFA-AI-21-050)

COVID-19 $67,673,902 (99%) percent of this Cooperative Agreement was funded by COVID-19 emergency acts including the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
Amendment Since initial award the total obligations have increased from $67,662,387 to $68,201,902.