The development of effective vaccine technologies for the fight against severe infectious diseases has been one of the most successful global health interventions in history. Yet, the threat of future and ongoing pandemics arisen from viruses such as the SARS-CoV-2 virus complexifies the design of readily applicable vaccine formulations. Over the last three years, the COVID-19 pandemic has quickly evolved with the emergence of multiple variants, including the immune evasive variant Omicron that can escape the immune response and participates in reducing vaccine effectiveness. To face the overall challenges of the pandemic, Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccines have been authorized for emergency use. While this technology is revolutionary, it suffers from strict storage conditions as well as lack of protection over long timescales and against variants, which lead to burdensome vaccination schedules as well as expensive manufacturing and distribution. There is therefore a need for more protective, potent, and easily manufacturable vaccines to enhance immunity and decrease the burden of patient compliance.
The project HYPOVACC aims to overcome these issues by designing cost-effective vaccine systems able to effectively protect against a variety of viruses belonging to the family of coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV-2 or potential future related viruses. These efforts envision to decrease the cost of manufacturing/distribution, and number of vaccinations, reinforcing therefore worldwide vaccine equity and patient compliance.
