Systems Biology-Based Platforms to Accelerate Research of Emerging Infectious Diseases

Oh, Soo-Jin; Choi, Young-Ki; Shin, Ok Sarah

Emerging technologies, such as structure-based antigen design and synthetic vaccinology, have heralded in a new era of vaccine discovery and development. As an example, a reverse vaccinology process was recently applied, based on the notion that protective antigens could be identified by determining the antibody repertoire from infected or vaccinated individuals. 89, 90 Fig. 3 demonstrates the identification of novel and the most effective epitopes using NGS and high-throughput robotic crystallization platforms to enable more precise prediction of epitope targets for efficient antibody generation. Webbased epitope databases, vaccine design resources, and protein structure comparison resources can help to improve our understanding of immune responses and the escape and evolution of pathogens. 91 As an example, there have been massive antibody engineering efforts to improve the breadth and potency of anti-HIV-1 antibodies. 92 Given the importance of neutralizing antibodies for vaccine protection, the dissection of antibody variable regions using reverse vaccinology tools is a rational approach to design vaccines and will ultimately lead to more effective vaccines for EIDs.