USask’s VIDO Joins Global Efforts to Prepare for the Next Pandemic

Building on a half century of life-saving animal and human infectious disease research, University of Saskatchewan’s VIDO (Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization) is in the vanguard of international efforts to prepare the world for the next pandemic.

Working on an innovative human vaccine, VIDO is helping to advance the international “100 Days Mission”, a goal embraced by Canada and other G7 and G20 nations—and spearheaded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)—to make available new vaccines in as little as 100 days after a virus with pandemic potential has been identified.

“Based on our experience with the last pandemic, Canada needs to have the capacity to make its own vaccines,” said VIDO director Dr. Volker Gerdts.  “As one of the most versatile facilities in the world for making a wide variety of vaccines for humans and animals, including new vaccine platforms, VIDO can play a key role in building this capacity.”

With leading-edge R & D facilities to take vaccine development to the next level, strong local, national, and international support, and impressive research talent from around the world, VIDO is becoming known as Canada’s Centre for Pandemic Research.

In 2020, VIDO was the first research group in Canada to isolate the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, and the first university in the country to launch clinical trials for a COVID vaccine candidate. Building on this work, VIDO has pivoted to developing an adaptable “platform vaccine” as part of CEPI’s portfolio of broadly protective coronavirus vaccines.

Most coronaviruses affect animals such as pigs and bats, but seven coronaviruses—including SARS and COVID-19—have spread to humans.

Instead of the current “one bug, one drug” approach to tackling coronavirus threats, VIDO’s latest promising vaccine innovation is to develop a single vaccine with broad coronavirus protection that can target COVID-19, SARS, and other coronaviruses that have not yet crossed into the human population.

With a few months, VIDO plans to do a manufacturing run of the first prototype of this coronavirus platform vaccine. Once scaled up and tested for quality control, the vaccine is expected to be ready for clinical trials in people within 18 months and become part of CEPI’s vaccine “library” to address future pandemics. CEPI is providing $24 million to manufacture the vaccine and complete the Phase 1 clinical trial.

How did VIDO, which turns 50 this fall, evolve from a small but innovative organization focussed on livestock diseases (with eight commercial animal vaccines, six of which are “world firsts”) to a world-class research institute focussed on emerging diseases that pose global pandemic threats for animals and humans?

Part of the story is that an estimated two-thirds of all human pathogens originate in animals and with its longstanding excellence in addressing livestock diseases affecting cattle, pigs, and poultry (with a 20:1 return on investment to industry and the country), VIDO has been able to transfer this expertise to emerging human pandemic threats as well.

For instance, tuberculosis (TB) crosses between cows and humans, with potential for devastating impacts for both human and bovine health. VIDO is working on a vaccine for human TB, as well as one for bovine TB which is critical for TB-free trade in the beef industry. Avian flu is another example of a highly pathogenic zoonotic virus. VIDO has done critical research on avian flu in dairy cattle that has helped paved the way for a vaccine to protect the dairy industry.

 Canada’s participation in the 100 Days Mission requires improved capability to scale up vaccine development—and VIDO is well equipped to do that.

Through PrairiesCan, Innovation Saskatchewan, and the City of Saskatoon, more than $150 million has been provided to complete major infrastructure that includes a new animal housing facility and upgrades to enable research in containment Level 4, the highest level of containment. The new animal facility will enable VIDO to safely house species needed for modern vaccine research—from ticks, to bats, to bison.  

“Normally, you don’t have one facility that has all these capabilities,” said Gerdts. “We will be able to make a discovery in the lab, show proof of concept in animal models, and then immediately start in-house manufacturing of that prototype for clinical testing. This saves a lot of time which is of the essence during pandemics.”

 With these new facilities expected to become operational in 2027—combined with VIDO’s new vaccine manufacturing facility which is slated to soon produce its first prototype human vaccine—VIDO is on track to become a world-class hub for research, innovation, and vaccine manufacturing.

“With support from all levels of government and our donors, we have created one of the most unique facilities in the world,” said Gerdts, noting that VIDO continues to develop much-needed new veterinary vaccines

 “We will soon be able to respond to any pathogen, whether or animal or human. Working with global partners, we will make vaccines today for tomorrow’s pathogens.”

VIDO is also contributing to the CEPI library of adjuvants, ingredients that help create a stronger immune response in people receiving a vaccine.

 “For the next pandemic, CEPI will be ready to draw on this open-access library and potentially assist vaccine developers worldwide,” Gerdts said. 

VIDO’s updated vaccine design involves a safe and stable technology that works by presenting non-infectious protein fragments to the body to generate an immune response.

As well, using AI and quantum computing, VIDO anticipates being able to predict what the next vaccines need to look like. “The aim is to never be in the situation again where we are in rush to address a pandemic,” Gerdts said.