The STRucture-guided Influenza Vaccine initiativE (STRIVE) project is a Public-Private Partnership between the SGCID Centers and Sanofi Pasteur.
The main goal of the STRIVE project is to integrate protein structure information with functional and immunological data to guide the optimization of influenza vaccine development and manufacturing for both seasonal and pandemic selections.
The SGCID Centers will obtain crystal structures of influenza hemagglutinin (HA) from clades and strains that are underrepresented by the current structural landscape. HA is the critical glycoprotein of the influenza viral coat that is responsible for virus binding to host cell receptors and subsequent membrane fusion events within the endosomal pathway of the infected cell. It is also the most abundant antigen on the surface of the virus and harbors the primary neutralizing epitopes for antibodies.
HA targets are nominated by Sanofi for structure determination. The solved HA structures will be deposited in PDB and also transferred to Sanofi for vaccine design.
To date 11 high-resolution structures have been deposited in PDB with other structures under further optimization and refinement. A key achievement has been the solution and deposition of co-crystal structures of monoclonal antibodies with activity against H1 and H3 HAs. Ongoing work will complete structural characterization of H1 and H3 HA proteins and continue the structural characterization of monoclonal antibody (mAb) complexes with HA proteins.
The STRIVE project was kicked off in May 2017.