# Immunological responses to pan-CoV vaccines

> **NIH NIH P01** · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · 2021 · $2,408,043

## Abstract

Summary
 The pan-coronavirus vaccine (PanCoVac) consortium will develop novel coronavirus vaccines that can
provide protection against a range of coronaviruses. Research Project 1 (RP1, ‘Design and evaluation of pan-
CoV vaccines’) will develop novel coronavirus antigens and test them in pre-clinical animal models. Research
Project, RP2, will test the ‘Immunological Responses to pan-CoV vaccines’, including a detailed analysis of
B and T cell responses in mice immunized with antigens developed in RP1 and formulated into a vaccine
platform. In Aim 1 (‘Provide a panel of well-characterized antibodies cross-reacting or specific to various
coronavirus strains’), human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) cloned from the B cells from COVID-19 patients
will be generated and characterized for activity against various coronaviruses. The functional and structural
characterization will be carried out in collaboration with investigators in RP1. The characterized mAbs will be
provided to RP1 to test novel antigens. The goal is to identify novel antigens that maintain key cross-reactive
epitopes while strain-specific immunodominant epitopes are lost. In Aim 2 (‘Analysis of B cell immunity cross-
reactive to SARS-CoV-2 and other coronavirus strains’), “Ig-omics”, i.e., single-cell technologies allowing
high-throughput analysis of B cell responses, phenotypes, immunoglobulin (Ig) repertoires and mAbs that react
to various coronaviruses (developed by one of the RP2 investigators) will be utilized for characterizing B cell-
mediated immunity and mAb specificity induced by the candidate vaccine antigens. These data will be compared
with results from a human cohort study (funded through a different mechanism) to identify vaccine candidates
that generate a broad B cell response and stimulate affinity maturation in germinal centers and the generation
of long-term memory B cells and plasma cells. In Aim 3 (‘Analysis of T cell immunity cross-reactive to SARS-
CoV-2 and other coronavirus strains’), we will test the ability of novel vaccine candidates to elicit responses
to cross-reactive CD4 and CD8 epitopes. In particular, novel methods based on T cell repertoire sequencing will
be used to characterize epitope-specific responses that are cross-reactive between SARS-CoV-2 and other
human coronaviruses, and those responses that are SARS-CoV-2 specific. Using data from ongoing longitudinal
cohort study of SARS-CoV-2-infected people (funded through a different mechanism), we will be able to identify
naïve and baseline cross-reactive T cell responses that expand after SARS-CoV-2 infection. These data will be
compared with the T cell responses in mice vaccinated with the novel vaccine candidates. Overall, these data
will allow an in-depth comparison of B and T cell responses between vaccinated animals and human COVID-
19 samples in order to refine vaccine candidates to be more cross-reactive.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10327849
- **Project number:** 1P01AI165077-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
- **Principal Investigator:** YOSHIHIRO KAWAOKA
- **Activity code:** P01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $2,408,043
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-16 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10327849

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10327849, Immunological responses to pan-CoV vaccines (1P01AI165077-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10327849. Licensed CC0.

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