20 IN FOCUS Cover Story Identifying potential vaccine antigens ata scientists at the School of Engineering were early contributors to the global search to nd vaccine targets for COVID- , the disease caused by the SARS-CoV- coronavirus. More recently, they have launched a web-based platform related to their initial ndings to assist vaccine design. In mid-January , a team led by Prof. Matthew MCKAY and research associate Dr. Ahmed Abdul QUADEER, both Electronic and Computer Engineering, began analyzing the limited genetic sequences of the novel SARS-CoV- available at that time and experimental data of SARS-CoV, the coronavirus responsible for the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Within three weeks, they had found genetic similarities in the two viruses that could aid identi cation of potential vaccine targets for SARS-CoV- . The researchers discovered that a set of B cell and T cell epitopes derived from SARS – protein fragments that can trigger an immune response to SARS-CoV – also existed in the new coronavirus. “Among the SARS epitopes that can trigger the immune system, we found that % of them also existed in SARS-CoV- , with their genetic sequences being exactly the same,” Prof. McKay said. “This made them highly likely candidates as antigens, or immune response triggers, for vaccines.” For the T cell epitopes, the researchers also performed a population coverage analysis and found one set of epitopes was capable of inducing an immune response in a large portion of the population during the SARS outbreak. “Given this set of epitopes is genetically identical in the COVID- virus, it has the potential to elicit a protective immune response against SARS-CoV- in a large fraction of the global population,” Dr. Quadeer said. The ndings received extensive local, national, and international news coverage. By the end of June , the article by Electronic and Computer Engineering PhD student Syed Faraz AHMED, Dr. Quadeer, and Prof. McKay had been cited over times and received over , views. Their research appeared as the March cover article of the international scienti c journal, Viruses, and was mentioned in a New Scientist cover story the same month. In June , the same team reported its development of COVIDep*, a rst-of-its-kind web-based platform that provides real-time reporting of immune target recommendations for guiding SARS-CoV- vaccine development. COVIDep implements a protocol that pools together publicly available genetic data for SARS-CoV- and epitope data for SARS-CoV to identify B cell and T cell epitopes that present potential immune targets for SARS-CoV- . COVIDep is updated daily based on the latest SARS-CoV- sequence data. This is important as SARS-CoV- sequences are being made available at a rapid pace, and the recommendation of vaccine targets is influenced by newly observed genetic variation in SARS-CoV- . An article describing COVIDep was published in Nature Protocols. * https://COVIDep.ust.hk D From right: Prof. Matthew McKay, research associate Dr. Ahmed Abdul Quadeer, and Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme student Syed Faraz Ahmed. The researchers found 20% of SARS-CoV epitopes (in red) to be an identical genetic match with SARS-CoV-2. SARS-CoV spike protein
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