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Led by the Oxford Vaccine Group, the new initiative based in the University - CoI-AI (Correlates of Immunity-Artificial Intelligence) - will combine Oxford’s expertise in human challenge studies, immune science and vaccine development with EITs cutting edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovation technology to better understand how the body fights infection and how vaccines protect us.
The CoI-AI programme will study how the immune system responds to important germs that cause serious infections and contribute to antibiotic resistance - such as Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, and E. coli, - amongst others, which cause widespread illness but have resisted traditional vaccine approaches. Researchers will use human challenge models (where volunteers are safely exposed to bacteria under controlled conditions) and apply modern immunology and AI tools to pinpoint the immune responses that predict protection.
Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, said: 'This programme addresses one of the most urgent problems in infectious disease by helping us to understand immunity more deeply to develop innovative vaccines against deadly diseases that have so far evaded our attempts at prevention. By combining advanced immunology with artificial intelligence, and using human challenge models to study diseases, CoI-AI will provide the tools we need to tackle serious infections and reduce the growing threat of antibiotic resistance. This is a new frontier in vaccine science.'