In a groundbreaking development for addressing future viral pandemics, an interagency team of researchers have successfully combined an artificial intelligence (AI)-backed platform to redesign and restore the effectiveness of antibodies whose ability to fight viruses has been compromised by viral evolution. The accomplishment was published on May 8, in the latest issue of the journal,
Nature, (DOI 10.1038/s41586-024-07385-1) and was achieved as a part of the Generative Unconstrained Intelligent Drug Engineering (GUIDE) program.
GUIDE is funded by the
Defense Department’s (DOD) Chemical and Biological Defense Program, led by the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND), and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), as well as other supporting interagency, academic, and industry partners. GUIDE’s mission is to harness the power of advanced simulation, machine learning and experimentation to accelerate drug development for the warfighter using integrated computational and experimental capabilities.
“The JPEO-CBRND and the DOD, in partnership with the DOE, help prepare us to address unknown threats by having the GUIDE tools at our fingertips to generate rapid solutions for our joint force” said Darryl Colvin, Joint Program Executive Officer for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense.
This publication is co-authored by Christopher Earnhart, Ph.D. (JPEO-CBRND) and Svetlana Hopkins, Ph.D. (JRAD, LLC in support of JPEO-CBRND), the DOE National Nuclear Security Administration’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory, and partners and collaborators from academia. The publication explains how the team used the AI-backed platform to re-engineer SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and restore their ability to fight off SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants without reducing their ability to fight off older variants. The GUIDE program has the potential to significantly accelerate the drug development process and improve pandemic preparedness. GUIDE researchers said the achievement could potentially lower drug development costs, reduce developability risks and get effective drugs to patients faster than current comparable methods.
The accomplishment of successfully re-engineering antibodies is the first step in actualizing GUIDE’s overall mission. The interagency team is continuing to work toward achieving additional milestones in the near term.
Read the Nature paper here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07385-1
DISCLAIMER: References to non-federal entities do not constitute or imply Department of Defense, U.S. Army or JPEO-CBRND endorsement of any company, product, or organization.
About the JPEO-CBRND: The Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) mission is to provide an integrated layered chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense capabilities to the Joint Force across combined Joint All-Domain Operations. JPEO-CBRND’s goal is to enable the Joint Force to fight and win unencumbered by a CBRN environment. To learn more about JPEO-CBRND, visit:
https://jpeocbrnd.army.afpims.mil/, or follow JPEO-CBRND on social media @JPEOCBRND.
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