SEATTLE — The University of Washington School of Medicine announced Sept. 26 that it will join a network of seven nationally funded centers to develop vaccines and antibodies to fight dangerous pathogens.
The goal is to use artificial intelligence to develop vaccines and antibodies for the next public health crisis.
Our focus is on staying ahead of potential illnesses by having options for a variety of viruses as needed.
The project will be led by Neil King, associate professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine. His lab, the University of Washington Institute of Medicine’s Protein Design Laboratory in Seattle, is known for using computational approaches to create functional protein nanomaterials.
“We are currently proposing a center focused on paramyxoviruses and bunyaviruses,” Professor King said. “We selected these viruses because they present unique challenges to vaccine design that, if solved, would facilitate the development of vaccines against related viruses.”
The center is expected to receive $13.6 million annually over three years.
The network will be funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and will make AI-based methods available to researchers around the world.
For more information about this project, visit the UW Medicine website.
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