New funding is to drive research into new vaccines which will be designed to deliver swift protection against future pandemics

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has announced it will fund new research conducted by scientists at the Stanford School of Medicine to study whether new vaccines could offer broad protection against multiple deadly pathogens from the filovirus viral family.

Supported by up to $18 million in CEPI investment, researchers will design and test new vaccine constructs that could provide all-in-one protection against viruses including Zaire Ebolavirus, Marburg and Sudan Ebolavirus, and even filoviruses that we don’t yet know about that could spill over from animals into humans in the future.

“A broadly protective filovirus vaccine could transform the world’s defences against outbreaks of some of the world’s most dangerous pathogens, for the benefit of all,” explains CEPI’s executive director of research & development Dr Kent Kester. “If we solve the scientific challenge of developing all-in-one filovirus vaccines now, we can ensure the world is ready to respond at speed to newly emerging filoviruses and potentially take the threat of future filovirus pandemics off the table.”

The research will use cutting-edge artificial intelligence to design immunogens – the substance in a vaccine that provokes an immune response – that may be capable of protecting against more than one filovirus. These immunogens will be combined with a ferritin-based protein-nanoparticle vaccine platform to create a range of vaccine candidates that will be tested in preclinical studies to establish proof of concept. The most promising vaccine candidate will be advanced to the point where it is ready to rapidly enter Phase I clinical trials should an unknown filovirus outbreak emerge.

The CEPI explained the ferritin nanoparticle vaccine platform is favourable for use in low- and middle-income countries as it does not require complex frozen storage that can impact access to doses in low-resource settings. It has previously been tested in Phase I clinical trials for influenza and COVID-19 vaccines, which generated positive safety data.

Filoviruses such as Ebolavirus Zaire, Sudan Ebolavirus and Marburg cause frequent outbreaks in African countries, characterised by high fatality rates and significant societal and economic impacts. A single vaccine capable of combating all of these known threats could offer a cost-effective solution for proactively immunizing those who are most likely to be infected by one or more of the viruses.

Crucially, the project will also equip scientists with the tools they need to respond at pace if faced with an unknown pathogen – a so-called ‘Disease X’ – from the filovirus family. The scientific knowledge and immunogen designs generated by the research will be added to CEPI’s ‘Disease X Vaccine Library’, a comprehensive collection of vaccine data and information about the most worrying viral families that can be rapidly adapted for use during outbreaks of novel viruses with pandemic potential. This approach to significantly accelerate vaccine development is central to the 100 Days Mission: a global goal, spearheaded by CEPI and embraced by G7 and G20 nations to develop pandemic-busting vaccines in just 100 days and make the world a safer place for all.

Professor Peter Kim, the Virginia & D.K. Ludwig professor of Biochemistry, at the Stanford School of Medicine, and principal investigator on the project said: “We are excited to collaborate with CEPI to develop a globally effective broad-spectrum vaccine to protect against future filovirus pandemics.”