EvaMobs is working on an innovative strategy for the rapid and efficient development of new antivirals. This way, we can develop new antivirals fast, preventing a large viral outbreak.

Challenge
With progress in globalization, expansion of human populations into natural habitats, and aggravation of climate change comes an increased risk of viral outbreaks. As demonstrated by the COVID-19 pandemic, not being prepared for such events has devastating consequences on public health, society and the economy. Preventing new pandemics and epidemics requires us to be prepare and act fast, before a new virus can spread.

Solution
EvaMobs is taking a new approach in antiviral development, by using evolvable monobodies, or “Mobs” for short.

Mobs are small proteins that can be tailored to have a high affinity for any type of virus. In other words, by making specific changes to the framework of Mobs, this technology can be used to easily generate specific molecules that can target and inactivate a particular virus.

Existing antiviral biologics are  mostly based on the use monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) . Mobs are an alternative to this. Mobs are smaller than mAbs, allowing for a lower dosage to use. In addition, Mobs are derived from a human protein, , making Mobs less prone to evoke an immune response than other computationally designed proteins.

EvaMobs will combine protein design strategies based on artificial intelligence to state-of the art in vitro and in vivo screening and characterization methods to develop a framework that can easily discover, produce and validate the most effective Mobs as new antivirals.

Impact
As Mobs can be engineered to have high binding affinity for virtually any viral protein, this platform can be easily adapted to a broad range of viruses, including newly emerging viruses and viral variants.

To demonstrate the capacity of this platform it will first be applied to four pathogenic viruses with epidemic and/or pandemic potential: Influenza A, SARS-CoV-2, respiratory syncytial virus, and Zika virus. New techniques will enable the generation of tailor-made Mobs which will be screened to understand their binding interaction. Rapid development and selection of stable and potent candidates will be achieved through the creation of a high-throughput screening platform for the tailor-made Mobs. The Mob with the best preclinical indicators will then be tested in a phase I clinical trial after implementing a stable formulation and GMP production.

The optimized platform can then be adapted to other viruses. Therefore, EvaMobs provides an innovative, robust and flexible platform for antiviral biologics development as well as a diverse portfolio of validated drugs, strengthening the EU’s pandemic preparedness.

Partnership
Consortium: 11 partners (from 7 EU countries + Switzerland)

• Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier (ITQB NOVA), Portugal (Coordinator)
• The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain
• National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT), Ireland
• Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), Belgium
• Gulbenkian Institute of Molecular Medicine (GiMM), Portugal
• Universidade Catolica Portuguesa (UCP), Portugal
• Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health (IMI), Croatia

Industry partners:

• Synovo, Germany
• Evidenze, Spain

Other Partners:

• École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
• Catalyze, Netherlands

This project has received €9M funding from the European Health and Digital Executive Agency under grant number 101137419.

Websites: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101137419
https://evamobs.eu/