Phylex BioSciences Designs AI Derived Andes Hantavirus Vaccine in Two Days

Phylex BioSciences has developed an AI derived mRNA nanoparticle vaccine candidate against the Andes hantavirus within two days of the virus sequence being made public, announced in a press release.

The Andes hantavirus, which causes hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, has a fatality rate of up to 50 percent and was recently linked to an outbreak aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius. Phylex used deep learning tools to design an optimized antigen displayed on a nanoparticle that mimics the virus to trigger a strong immune response.

According to the company, the vaccine design is ready for manufacturing and in vivo testing. The mRNA nanoparticle platform encodes for a nanoparticle displaying 60 copies of an optimized viral antigen. Phylex previously demonstrated this technology against SARS CoV 2 in collaboration with the Pasteur Institute and against the Nipah virus with the US Centers for Disease Control.

Phylex stated that its approach combines AI accelerated antigen design with the speed of mRNA manufacturing and the immunogenic properties of nanoparticle presentation.