A cloud-based systems-immunology platform for reliable predictions of vaccine efficacy

Developing a new vaccine typically takes more than a decade. Under a single umbrella, Inno4Vac proposes an ambitious programme that will harness the latest advances in immunology, disease modelling, and in silico and mathematical modelling for tackling persistent scientific bottlenecks in vaccine development and for de-risking and accelerating this process. Inno4Vac is an interdisciplinary project funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 (IMI2) that aims to harness advances in the fields of immunology, big data and artificial intelligence, 3D tissue models and human infection models, and incorporate them into the vaccine industry to accelerate the development of new vaccines. This five year and a half project (Sept 2021 – February 2027) brings together global leaders in the fields of clinical research, immunology, microbiology, systems biology, mathematical models, and regulatory matters. This diverse team will focus on four key areas or subtopics. INESC TEC’s focus is in Subtopic 1 – VAXPRED: Using big data analysis, computational modelling in combination with artificial intelligence is being used to build an open-access and cloud-based platform for in silico vaccine efficacy assessment and development.