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Application

A vaccine for SARS-COV-2 that can be used to protect against infection by future forms of Variant-of-Concern (VOC) or other SARS-like coronaviruses.

Key Benefits

• An approach to developing a vaccine that would be effective against future mutations of SARS-COV-2.
• A vaccine that elicits an immune response to conserved portions of the spike protein surrounding coronaviruses.

Market Summary

As vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 are being developed and deployed, there is concern about the long-term efficacy of vaccines as SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to mutate over time that leads to escaping the immunity induced by current vaccines. Though most people infected with COVID-19 experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without hospitalization or special treatment. However, immunocompromised and elderly populations are substantially more likely to develop severe infections, meaning that it is extremely important for effective vaccines to be available. Although several FDA-authorized preventative vaccines are on the market, the duration of efficacy is unclear, as is how well they will protect against future Variants of Concern (VOCs). There is an unmet need for new vaccine technologies to be developed to protect the population to as the virus mutates.

Technical Summary

The proposed technology is a method for developing vaccines against SARS-Cov2 with the intention of preventing against infection from current and future SARS-like coronavirus variants. The stem (S2) subunit of the virus’s spike (S) protein has demonstrated a 75% sequence homology across lineage B β-coronaviruses, and the researchers were able to identify three segments of the S2 subunit that are conserved among all lineage B β-coronaviruses that include all known variants of SARS-COV-2 and all SARS-like coronaviruses. However, antibody responses against these conserved segments are difficult to induce by conventional vaccine approaches. The researchers found that when such conserved segments from the SARS-COV-2 S2 subunit was mounted onto an Ebola soluble glycoprotein scaffold, antibody responses against the embedded conserved segment of SARS-COV-2 S2 subunit can be readily induced by vaccination. The researchers propose constructing a novel vaccine that targets the three segments found in the S2 subunit because it demonstrates a possibility to create a vaccine to prevent against infection from future SARS-COV-2 variants as well as other SARS-like coronaviruses of zoonotic origins.