- Researchers at the University of Cambridge recently developed the world’s first vaccine designed by artificial intelligence (AI) and successfully tested it in humans.
- The vaccine was created to protect against viruses in the sarbecovirus family, including both SARS and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID.
- Medical News Today spoke with a virologist and an AI scientist to discuss vaccine safety and effectiveness, and how AI can help scientists develop universal vaccines.
The world’s first human vaccine designed by artificial intelligence (AI) and developed by scientists at the University of Cambridge has passed its initial testing successfully and is currently undergoing further testing.
What makes this vaccine different from traditional vaccines is that, instead of being developed in response to current strains, it uses a predictive design.
To achieve that, scientists used AI to analyze multiple coronaviruses to create a “super antigen“. With this super antigen, they were able to target the common features of viruses in the coronavirus family and, in a sense, future-proof the vaccine against current and future coronavirus mutations.
The vaccine also has a needle-free design, using a specialized jet injector via the PharmaJet Tropis system. Rather than piercing the skin with a traditional metal syringe, it uses fluid dynamics to deliver the vaccine ingredients exactly where they need to go.
However, the technology remains highly experimental, and the first human trial included only 39 people.
The results of the trial were published in the Journal of Infection.
To decipher what this trial means for the future of vaccine development and how this technology works, Medical News Today spoke to two experts who were not involved in the research:
- Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, an infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco,
- and Marc Boubnovski, senior AI Scientist at Novo Nordisk.
Team Health Accessible
Health & Wellness Editorial Team
HealthAccessible editorial team delivers trusted, accessible, and evidence-based health information for everyone.
