£227k Awarded to King's College London for 'epigenetic shield' Research
The project aims to develop broad prophylactic strategies by engineering epigenetic memories in the innate immune system.
King's College London has secured £227,000 in funding to identify 'epigenetic signals' that could protect against viral infections. The research, led by Professor Bell, will utilise data from the TwinsUK cohort, one of the largest twin registries in the world.
The project, known as epiPRIME, is spearheaded by Dr. Chiara Herzog at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and involves a collaborative team from six different institutions.
This funding is part of a larger £57 million programme from ARIA (Advanced Research and Invention Agency), which also announced awards for ten other teams under its Sustained Viral Resilience programme.
The broader programme has a specific goal: to demonstrate durable prophylaxis against at least three families of respiratory viruses following a single course of administration.
A Different Approach to Immunity
While traditional vaccines target the adaptive immune system, epiPRIME focuses on a different mechanism.
The project builds on the example of the BCG vaccine, which is known to have broader effects beyond tuberculosis. It aims to create Sustained Innate Immunoprophylactics (SIIPs) — essentially, leveraging the innate immune system's memory to provide long-lasting protection.
Professor Bell confirmed that the team will combine "large-scale data with computational approaches" to identify the specific epigenetic signals that can trigger this protective response.
Context: Why This Matters
Viral infections remain a major global public health challenge. COVID-19 and seasonal flu continue to cause significant mortality and economic disruption worldwide.
By engineering an 'epigenetic memory' in the innate immune system, the epiPRIME project aims to develop a broad-spectrum prophylactic strategy that could potentially protect against multiple viral threats at once.