Conserved epitope locations and entry mechanisms in SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein and their applications to viral evolution and novel vaccine design

As the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect people throughout the world, the inherent possibility of SARS- CoV-2 to mutate and evolve into further novel variants and strains of which considerable dangers and public health risks apply remains prevalent. As the world has already witnessed, these new variants carry the potential to be both more infectious and better biologically equipped to evade our current antibody and vaccine therapies. To combat this threat, this project seeks to develop, implement, and evaluate therapeutics that are effective against possible future emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. Within the scope of this research, we will use a safe and modified virus (containing CoV-2 Spike proteins) to both predict future variants and develop therapeutics that are robust and difficult for the virus to evade. We propose two strategies, one that involves using a decoy to prevent SARS-CoV-2 from entering human cells, and another that involves characterizing a region of the Spike protein that could be developed in the future as a vaccine that is effective against a wide variety of variants. ProMIS Neurosciences will play an integral role in supporting the development of these therapeutics and has interest in pursuing possible “universal” vaccine candidates in the future.

Faculty Supervisor:

Steven Plotkin

Student:

Partner:

ProMIS Neurosciences

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program: