From Lab to Life: An AI-Designed Vaccine

The BBC reports today, June 5, that “Artificial intelligence has been used to develop a “fundamentally new” type of vaccine that could protect against large swathes of viruses and prevent pandemics, say researchers.   The team at the University of Cambridge say it is the first time a vaccine’s key component has been designed entirely by AI and then trialled in people.   The vaccine was engineered to work on all coronaviruses which would include all Covid variants as well as viruses that currently infect animals yet have the potential to start the next pandemic.”

The work is still in the early stages, but the team is already developing separate vaccines that could tackle flu and Ebola.

I believe it is fascinating that this report emerges, the same day that the AI company Anthropic, parent of Claude, warns that there are increasing signs that AI is developing ‘independence’ from its creators – implying it may soon be out of control.  Shades of A-bomb vs. nuclear power plants.

The BBC explains that “Vaccines teach our bodies how to spot an infection to increase our chances of fighting it off.  But some viruses are adept at changing their appearance – or mutating – so vaccines can quickly go out of date. It’s why Covid and winter flu vaccines need to be regularly updated.”

The lead investigator explains:  “We’re always behind,” said Prof Jonathan Heeney, from the University of Cambridge, adding “what we’re trying to do is get ahead of the curve” and so far ahead they could protect against new outbreaks or pandemics.

How did they do it?  The Cambridge researchers took known genetic codes from a range of coronaviruses that had been recorded by surveillance programmes hunting for potential viral threats.  These genetic codes were then analysed by an artificial intelligence. It then designed a “super-antigen” that could train the immune system in such a way that it gave protection against the whole family of viruses – even if they mutated or a new infection jumped from animals to people. *

* Vishwanath, S., Carnell, G. W., Ferrari, M., Asbach, B., Billmeier, M., George, C., … & Heeney, J. L. (2025). A computationally designed antigen eliciting broad humoral responses against SARS-CoV-2 and related sarbecoviruses. Nature Biomedical Engineering, 9(2), 153-166.

We, the human race, are indeed in a race.  The race is against Nature and evolution – and at least in terms of viruses,  COVID shows we are actually losing.  Can AI help us catch up with Nature?  Stay tuned.