A research group funded by tech billionaire Larry Ellison is set to invest £118 million ($169.6 million) in applying AI to vaccine research with the UK’s Oxford University.
Oxford Vaccine Group is leading the project to study the human immune system’s response to serious bacterial infections and antibiotic resistance, targeting diseases including Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, and E. coli.
Led by Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, who ran the trials for COVID-19 vaccines, the project plans to employ so-called human challenge models – which expose human volunteers to bacteria under controlled conditions – then apply modern immunology and AI tools to pinpoint the immune responses that predict protection.
“This program addresses one of the most urgent problems in infectious disease by helping us to understand immunity more deeply to develop innovative vaccines against deadly diseases that have so far evaded our attempts at prevention,” Pollard said.
“By combining advanced immunology with artificial intelligence, and using human challenge models to study diseases, CoI-AI [Correlates of Immunity-Artificial Intelligence] will provide the tools we need to tackle serious infections and reduce the growing threat of antibiotic resistance. This is a new frontier in vaccine science.”
Established in 2023, the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) aims to open its Oxford campus in 2027 following an investment of around £1 billion. It is set to provide research labs and computing capacity supported by Oracle, which Ellison helped found. In December 2024, the University of Oxford and the EIT launched their strategic alliance.
Ellison has long voiced an interest in healthcare. During the keynote of Oracle’s conference in 2022, he said: “If we’re not careful… we’re gonna bankrupt Western civilization unless we find a more efficient way of providing healthcare to everybody.”
In 2020, Ellison is said to have contributed to the early US response to the COVID-19 pandemic during President Donald Trump’s first term.
Ellison continues to be close to US government projects, and remains a contributor to the $500 billion Stargate project, which aims to build a network of AI datacenters around the globe.
However, the current US administration has attracted criticism for its approach to vaccines. In August, the US Department of Health and Human Services said it planned to cancel $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccines, which promise to protect against viruses that cause flu and COVID-19.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Oxford Vaccine Group’s Pollard said there was “huge concern” that the debate on vaccines in the US was threatening vaccines that protect millions of children’s lives.
“One of the greatest tools ever is being undermined by poor science and misinformation,” he told the publication. ®
Source link
