A Cambridge team has had a third success with their AI-guided technique for designing vaccines against highly infectious viruses that threaten animal and human health.
Their new vaccine against bird flu – a significant threat to human health – outperformed the current stockpiled jab in animal trials.
This proves that the technique could help strengthen pandemic preparedness and national biosecurity.
By Jacqueline Garget
Cambrigde, Nov 06, 2026.- In a study published today in the journal ‘Cell Reports Medicine’, the team reports that their new broad-spectrum bird flu vaccine gave complete protection against globally circulating, diverse variants of the disease in animal trials.
The results show the vaccine is far superior to bird flu vaccines currently stockpiled by many governments for use in the event of a human outbreak. In the study, those vaccines protected only around 50% of animals exposed to multiple bird flu variants, compared with complete protection achieved by the team’s new vaccine.
Developed by the University’s Laboratory of Viral Zoonotics and spin-out DIOSynVax Ltd, this is the latest in a series of new vaccines made in an entirely new way. Their active ingredient is designed to give lasting protection from thousands of virus variants in a single vaccine.
The new study proves that the team’s ‘plug and play’ approach can be used to create safe, highly effective vaccines for a plethora of infectious diseases threatening animal and human health globally.
The next step is to test the new bird flu vaccine in human clinical trials, so that it can be ready to be given to humans immediately, when needed.
Bird flu is spreading in animals around the world and currently considered a significant threat to global public health.
Although some human infections with the North American variants have been mild, other variants in south-east Asia have caused severe disease and high mortality in humans.
Like the coronaviruses that caused COVID-19, and many other emerging infectious diseases, bird flu is an RNA virus. RNA viruses represent a particular threat to human health because they can mutate rapidly into new strains that can jump from animals to humans and evade our immune systems – and our existing vaccines.
Earlier this year the team announced that their broad-spectrum coronavirus vaccine had proved safe in human trials, and published results showing their broad-spectrum influenza vaccine protects against both human and swine flu viruses.
Current pandemic preparedness relies on stockpiling vaccines against individual virus variants that have already emerged. These require constant updating as the virus changes – increasing the cost to governments.
The Cambridge team’s approach uses AI-guided engineering to create broadly protective vaccines intended to remain effective across a wide range of existing and future variants. Heeney said:
«These new-generation vaccines are a game changer for national biosecurity and more resilient public health.
«They mean we can be much better prepared to respond immediately to virus epidemics and pandemics, rather than the current scenario of always being on the back foot and responding with a strain which will have changed.»
The results demonstrate the potential of AI-guided vaccine design in developing broad protective population immunity ahead of evolving biological threats. This aligns closely with the emerging national and international focus on biosecurity, following the UK government’s recent £100 million investment in national AI biosecurity.