16 May 2023
The subtopic1, VAXPRED, dedicated to build an open access and cloud-based platform to predict vaccine efficacy using artificial intelligence, held a face-to-face meeting in Oslo on 8th and 9th May 2023. 18 attendees from seven organizations participated in this meeting, including the University of Oslo (UiO), Instituto de Engenhariade Sistemas e Computadores, Tecnologia e Ciencia (INESC TEC), Helmholtz-Zentrum fur Infektionsforschung GMBH (HZI), Denmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU), Sclavo Vaccines Association ETS (SVA), GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals SA (GSK) and Sanofi Pasteur SA (SP).
The meeting was opened by Gunnveig Grødeland (UiO) that welcomed the attendees and presented an overview of the VAXPRED project and current challenges. The first topic for discussion was modelling of TCR/BCR specificity predictions, and where Morten Nielsen (DTU) presented current state-of-the-art. Niklas Schwan (HZI) then presented ongoing work with GC simulations of a virtualized antigen, and Rahmad Akbar (UiO) talked about virtual antibody generation and antigen binding site predictions.
In the second part of the first day, Henk-Jan van den Ham (ENPICOM) led a discussion on how we can approach baseline definitions of health and disease, continued by a presentation on gold-standard simulations of repertoire data by Stefan Lelieveld (ENPICOM). The first day ended with a discussion led by Victor Greiff (UiO) on what we need for performance of meaningful in silico vaccine trails.
The second day started with a presentation on “Immunological imprinting after repeated exposure to similar antigens” by Elias Tjärnhage and Quy Khang Le (UiO). After this, the remaining day had been dedicated to a workshop on “Building a predictive in silico platform for vaccine efficacy” led by Arthur Rocha, Ademar Aguiar and Alexandre Almeida Costa (INESC TEC). Attendees widely discussed on the outcome of GC simulations, properties of in silico generated antibodies, clonal size of responses and epitope selection.
This productive and valuable event ensured an effectively discussion and gave the chance for planning future research activities and promoting strong collaboration between VAXPRED partners.
Contact:
Dr. Irina Meln (Project and Innovation Manager at the European Vaccine Initiative)
Email: irina.meln@euvaccine.eu
This project has received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 101007799. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA (www.imi.europa.eu). This communication reflects the author´s view and neither IMI nor the European Union, EFPIA, or any Associated Partners are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.