A Cambridge-led team has completed the first human trial of the world’s first computer-designed universal vaccine, and the early results are striking. The AI-designed shot proved safe in volunteers and triggered broad immune responses across multiple coronaviruses at once.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge built the platform with spin-out company DIOSynVax, founded in 2017. The Phase 1 trial, named pEVAC-PS, involved 39 healthy volunteers aged 18 to 50 at NIHR facilities in Southampton and Cambridge. Participants received a DNA-based vaccine through a needle-free jet system, with no significant side effects reported. The shot targets the entire Sarbeco coronavirus family, including SARS-CoV-2, SARS, and related bat viruses with pandemic potential.
The technology uses machine learning to design a synthetic “super-antigen,” built from massive genetic databases gathered through global virus surveillance. Volunteers developed immune responses not only to known coronaviruses, but also to bat viruses that have never infected humans.
“We’ve converted vaccine development from being reactive to being future-proof,” said Professor Jonathan Heeney, the project’s scientific lead and DIOSynVax chief scientific officer.
He added the vaccines should keep protecting people even as viruses mutate.
Chief investigator Professor Saul Faust framed the stakes sharply.
“If we can develop and clinically advance this new class of vaccines before a virus outbreak begins, millions of lives could be saved, lockdowns avoided and the economy preserved,” he said.
The team believes the approach could extend to Ebola and influenza too. Larger Phase 2 trials are still needed. There are some limitations to the research, naturally. The published trial is Phase 1 and limited to 39 volunteers, and the institutional accounts state the study demonstrates safety and immunogenicity signals only in that small, healthy adult cohort.
Reporting indicates a larger Phase 2 trial is planned to assess immune responses in a wider and more diverse population; detailed neutralization breadth, durability, and correlates of protection are not reported in the press summaries.
You can access the research here.
