Project description
Preparedness for future mpox outbreaks
Once largely confined to Central and West Africa, mpox has spread globally through human-to-human transmission. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern in August 2024, the second such declaration since 2022. The ERC-funded PROTECTIVE project aims to meet the need for better countermeasures. Specifically, it will isolate powerful monoclonal antibodies from infected or vaccinated individuals and use them to identify viral targets for next-generation vaccines. Generative AI will speed this process, helping design new immunogens and paving the way for faster, broader protection against mpox and future emerging pathogens.
Objective
Recent Monkeypox (mpox) outbreaks have caught once again the world unprepared. Low-middle income countries are currently most affected by mpox, however cases keep being reported worldwide. The continues circulation of mpox can rapidly burst in a global crisis that can set-back our world into chaos, reminiscing the recent pandemic. Lack of effective and affordable medical interventions urges the need to develop innovative countermeasures against orthopoxviruses. Recent technologies and methodological advancements allow to develop vaccines and monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in record time, and their use can be vital to stop current and future orthopoxvirus-related threats. Here we propose to discover and develop mAbs against mpox and other orthopoxviruses. These reagents will be crucial to identify and design novel protective antigens to develop innovative vaccines. We will isolate, through an antigen-agnostic approach, mAbs from mpox infected or vaccinated individuals to build a panel of neutralizing mAbs (nAbs) able to recognize orthopoxviruses shared and protective epitopes. Generative artificial intelligence will be systemically integrated in our workflow to identify antigens targeted by discovered nAbs at unprecedented speed. Data-augmentation and iterative deep-learning models will be used to in silico design new vaccine immunogens which can be produced as recombinant proteins or mRNA, or loaded on nanoparticles. This approach will provide broadly nAbs and effective vaccines designed to protect from mpox and other orthopoxviruses. If successful, the approach herein proposed will fuel the field of vaccinology allowing unprecedent speed for antigen discovery and vaccine development. This approach could be translated to all pathogens for which no cure or prevention are available including emerging viral pathogens and antimicrobial resistant bacteria. This will strongly increase European competitiveness in fighting infectious disease and control future crisis.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology bacteriology
- medical and health sciences health sciences public health epidemiology pandemics
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy pharmaceutical drugs vaccines
- engineering and technology nanotechnology nano-materials
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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53100 Siena
Italy
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