An AI platform to identify optimal T cell targets for developing diagnostics for emerging diseases

Offentlig prosjektsammendrag

The outbreak of COVID-19 and its rapid worldwide transmission resulted in the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 as a pandemic and global health emergency. COVID-19 is caused by the novel coronavirus Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Currently, the pandemic has resulted in 25 million confirmed cases and 840 000 deaths worldwide (as of the 28th of August 2020). The consequences of repeated waves of COVID-19 outbreaks will result in an unacceptably high mortality and severe economic disruption. Thus, the social and economic benefits of developing effective therapies, vaccines and reliable diagnostics tests are enormous. Several organizations around the world are pursuing the development of diagnostic antibody tests for SARS-CoV-2 (seroconversion), that could serve as the basis for an “immunity passport” or “risk-free certificate” that would enable citizens who have developed protective immunity to return to work and travel. However, up to 50% of patients who recover from COVID-19 do not have detectable antibody responses as the infection has been resolved by the cellular arm of their immune system driven by T-cells. Therefore, to develop comprehensive and reliable diagnostic tests the international community needs T-cell based tests that complement the current serological tests. The objective of this project is to build an AI platform that will computationally screen all possible T cell epitopes in a pathogen to identify the optimal targets that can be used to rapidly develop a cost-effective and highly specific T-cell based diagnostic test during an infectious disease outbreak. While the AI platform will be validated using the SARS-CoV-2 virus during the project, and will contribute to the development of a SARS-CoV-2 T-cell based diagnostic test, the AI platform will be developed in a disease agnostic manner and will be applicable to any pathogen to protect against future pandemics.