A candidate vaccine that fights a suite of coronaviruses including COVID-19 and related, deadly respiratory diseases is starting human clinical testing in Australia. The vaccine was developed using technology from the University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design.
South Korean pharmaceutical company SK bioscience is leading the trial for the new coronavirus vaccine, called GBP511. SK bioscience previously partnered with UW researchers on a COVID-19 vaccine that received regulatory approval.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations has provided the GBP511 program with approximately $65 million in funding.
Unlike most vaccines that target a single virus or strain, GBP511 aims to protect against multiple coronaviruses at once.
“GBP511 is the first vaccine to reach human testing that is intended to protect against multiple strains of the virus that causes COVID-19 as well as related coronaviruses with the potential to spark dangerous outbreaks,” Neil King, associate professor of biochemistry at UW Medicine, said in a statement.
King, who is deputy director of the Institute for Protein Design, co-invented the self-assembling nanoparticle technology that was used to generate the vaccine. The institute is on the cutting edge of AI-assisted protein innovation and perhaps best known as the home of David Baker, a 2024 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry.
The new vaccine recognizes sarbecoviruses, a subgroup of coronaviruses that include the virus that causes COVID-19, as well as those responsible for other major disease outbreaks: the original SARS-CoV-1 virus that caused widespread illness in the early 2000s and MERS-CoV, which caused outbreaks primarily in the Middle East. The family also includes viruses found in animals such as camels and bats, some of which have already infected humans and others that potentially could.
The vaccine features pieces of four different coronaviruses attached to a computer-designed nanoparticle, triggering an immune response to a variety of invaders.
“The beauty of this approach is that by presenting the immune system with multiple related antigens at once, we can train it to recognize features that are conserved across the entire sarbecovirus family,” said David Veesler, a professor of biochemistry at UW Medicine who led the preclinical studies.
The international Phase 1/2 trial launched its enrollments last month and aims to include approximately 368 healthy adults in Perth, Western Australia. Results from the study examining the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness are expected by 2028.
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