Protein Design and Structural Vaccinology Update

19 January 2025

Major milestones in protein design and engineering were achieved Q4 2024, particularly in structural vaccinology, whereby de novo designed proteins have transitioned from in silico and in vitro success to promising results for in vivo testing in mice.

A first partner study on de novo-designed proteins for vaccine development has now advanced to in vivo testing. By integrating our ProCondor protein target and construct design platform with open-source diffusion models and Large Language Model (LLM)-based protein design, we successfully generated proteins that transitioned from in vitro success to promising in vivo results in mice. These antigens were designed using a proprietary protein design strategy developed by PUXANO to target a specific class of membrane proteins. The design strategy is now being extended to additional targets, offering solutions to protein expression and stability challenges that have hindered progress for decades. This will lead to a portfolio of antigens against pathogenic bacteria, many of which are implicated in antibiotic resistance, demonstrating the broad applicability of our approach across this protein class. We look forward to sharing our findings soon.

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