Bacterial viruses and gene chains. (PHOTO: VCG)

By LIU Xia & QI Liming

As the novel coronavirus continues to mutate, research on the universal coronavirus vaccine has accelerated in many countries, so as to prevent the next global pandemic. On the other hand, the research also aims to help humans prevent infection from unknown coronaviruses that may come from animals.

During the R&D process, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is playing an important role in studying experimental data on immune responses, so as to identify candidate antigens.

In 2020, Baidu launched the world's first LinearDesign algorithm for gene sequencing of mRNA vaccine, which is an efficient algorithm specifically used to optimize mRNA sequence design.

The LinearDesign can greatly improve the stability of vaccine design and protein expression level for the sequence of novel coronavirus mRNA vaccine in 16 minutes. It effectively solved the problem of stability, which is the most significant aspect in mRNA vaccine development.

It remains to be seen whether the much-anticipated universal coronavirus vaccine will soon be available for humans. However, even if the vaccine is not ready in time before any future novel coronavirus variant, it still could be a powerful candidate tool for preventing the next pandemic caused by other coronaviruses.