From a near-infinite set of possibilities, we can identify the variants that present the greatest threats.
Viral outbreaks are inherently unpredictable.
Many of the world’s most threatening viruses continue to evolve faster than new medicines can be developed.
Instead of chasing viruses as they evolve, we are working to get ahead of them. To do this, we built Octavia™.
Octavia
[ ok-tey-vee-uh ] noun
Meet Octavia™
Octavia is our technology platform.
Octavia generates maps of existing and potential viral variants based on their ability to bind human cells and evade antibodies. Using these maps, we can define the combination of antibodies (antibody repertoire) that would best protect us against current and future threats and fill gaps in our defenses with new medicines – specifically, vaccines and antibodies.
Unlike fully computational approaches, our platform is designed from the bottom-up to seamlessly integrate experimental insights and artificial intelligence.
Octavia relies on several enabling technologies like protein display systems, deep mutational scanning, single-cell sorting and deep sequencing.
Here's how it works:
Apriori isolates a key protein fragment from the target virus
Octavia generates millions of non-replicating, non-infectious variant fragments in vitro from anchor sequences
We relocate the fragments to a display system that lets us measure how these proteins interact with antibodies (antibody drugs or antibodies induced by infection or existing vaccines) as well as human receptors for viral entry into cells
We use the resulting massive protein–protein interaction data set to train our biologically motivated AI using machine learning
Our AI deduces how other potential variants might bind to different antibodies, and models how each variant would behave in real life to identify those that pose the greatest potential threat
This allows us to reverse engineer variant-proof vaccines and antibody drugs that confer protection against a broad range of the most concerning potential variants
