Flagship Pioneering’s Post

We are pleased to announce that we have been awarded funding from CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), a global leader in pandemic preparedness, to help advance our biology-informed #artificialintelligence platform Octavia™. The insights we gather from Octavia will help to ensure the global community is better prepared to effectively address future outbreaks with precision and speed. Through this work, we aim to develop variant-resilient vaccines that remain protective for years to come, with an initial focus on further exploring pandemic influenza strain H3N2. Read more about how these funds will help advance our platform and our mission to protect humanity against future viral threats: https://lnkd.in/eX-Yrr47

Funded by CEPI, a groundbreaking Phase 1 first-in-human trial for a Nipah virus vaccine is now underway (bit.ly/41QGyud). Developed by the University of Oxford's Pandemic Sciences Institute, this vaccine candidate marks a crucial step towards safeguarding against Nipah virus—one of the deadliest pathogens known to infect humans. But what exactly is #Nipah virus? What symptoms does it cause? And how does it compare to other viruses within its Paramyxovirus family? Find the answers in #TheViralMostWanted 🔎➡️ http://bit.ly/3vvyumu

A fantastic review in pre-print, covering what we know to date about the innate and adaptive immunological mechanisms during Ebola virus infection - one of the most virulent pathogens since 1976 isolation, not only a serious public health issue but also designated as category A pathogen and a potential bioterrorism agent. Understanding the mechanistic correlates of immunity are key to the accelerated design of highly impactful globally relevant vaccines.  https://lnkd.in/dsAhyHpq

𝗦𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗯𝘆 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗿 𝗠𝗮𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗺 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲 Tuesday 3 October at 5.15pm (BST) Live on Microsoft Teams Find out more and sign up here: https://lnkd.in/eWvtg3wJ All living things, since the dawn of life, have been attacked by viruses - parasites that need to take over host cells to replicate and spread infection. Cells have developed many forms of defence against viruses, and viruses in turn have found ways to overcome these defences. By studying the systems bacteria use to combat viruses, we are now realising that humans inherited many of our anti-viral immune systems from our bacterial ancestors. In this talk, Professor White will explore the links between all living things on the tree of life, with a particular focus on our shared immune systems. #foreversaints

1️⃣Emerging and re-emerging viruses with #pandemic potential 2️⃣Risk of #viral zoonoses and its mitigation 3️⃣Diagnostics, surveillance and capacity building in resources limited settings 4️⃣#Immunization and preventive approaches 5️⃣#Drugdiscovery: stocking the shelves for the next pandemic 6️⃣#Biosafety and #Biosecurity when dealing with viral #infections 7️⃣Multidisciplinary approaches, infrastructure, and cooperation 8️⃣Future challenges in pandemic preparedness 👀 See you at the Conference "Pandemic preparedness" that provides an overview of recent pathogen research findings, methodologies, instruments, and multidisciplinary approaches functional to pandemic preparedness. The multiple focus of the event encompasses prevention, surveillance, detection, drug discovery and treatment. AVITHRAPID

#EcoSaludGlobal Detection of Influenza D Antibodies in Dogs, Apulia Region, Italy, 2016 and 2023 Dogs are known to be susceptible to influenza A viruses, although information on influenza D virus (IDV) is limited. We investigated the seroprevalence of IDV in 426 dogs in the Apulia region of Italy during 2016 and 2023. A total of 14 samples were positive for IDV antibodies, suggesting exposure to IDV in dogs.

Viruses are classified into two main categories, enveloped and non-enveloped. Enveloped viruses such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2 are easily destroyed by environmental factors, however they are able to evade the immune system more effectively due to their outer lipid membrane. Non-enveloped viruses such as norovirus and poliovirus are resistant to environmental factors, and easily target the immune system. Synexis has been proven to reduce both enveloped and non-enveloped viruses. Learn more: https://hubs.ly/Q02spCsT0 #SynexisDHP #SynexisSolution #MicrobialReduction

I've spent much of my time helping jurisdictions detect & prepare for two things: Widespread infectious disease outbreaks and a disruptive bioterrorism event. Both are complex, ongoing events. Both require enormous resources and coordination. There's dozens of vital steps we must take and strengthen. But to summarize it in the cheapest and simplest terms, we need a foundation that is rooted in: 1. More accurate and standardized health intelligence & real-time data 2. Systems that can readily scale and surge Article: https://lnkd.in/edsd6bRN

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) & WHO Regional Office for Europe launch today a new surveillance tool for respiratory viruses to improve early detection. The European Respiratory Virus Surveillance Summary - #ERVISS is a surveillance dashboard for #Influenza, #RSV & #SARSCoV2 featuring a weekly epidemiological summary. It will serve as a tool for the early detection and communication of signals of respiratory virus circulation in the EU/EEA and WHO European region. Where available, #ERVISS presents laboratory testing and virus characterisation data for circulating pathogens, such as determining virus type/subtype/strain, susceptibility to antivirals and similarity to available vaccines for both EU/EEA member states and countries of the WHO EURO region. Click to have a look: https://erviss.org Read more in our press release: https://lnkd.in/dsW9SWm7

Some interesting read. Of note, for future preparedness: the prototype-pathogen strategy. "In simple terms, it's about focusing on certain virus families known to infect humans and pose pandemic risks (...) By deeply studying selected viruses within these families, we can design countermeasures for related viruses" https://lnkd.in/eJaSHMpw