EpiVax identifies T-cell epitopes, short peptide sequences displayed by antigen presenting cells to T cells, to create immunogenic and protective vaccines from whole genomes.
Four major steps comprise the EpiVax strategy:
- Genomes are mined using computational tools to identify genes that encode proteins with promising vaccine antigen properties such as secretion, up-regulated expression, immunogenicity and virulence.
- Immunoinformatics tools are then used to map protein sequences for short, linear putative T-cell epitopes.
- Sequences are synthesized as peptides and evaluated for human leukocyte antigen (HLA) binding and antigenicity in survivors of infection or vaccinees.
- Prototype epitope-based vaccines are evaluated for immunogenicity and efficacy in humanized mice.
