The UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency has funded three Oxford-led projects to develop programmable respiratory virus protection.
The funding, drawn from ARIA’s £57 million Sustained Viral Resilience programme, will back 11 teams tasked with a fundamental shift in biosecurity: engineering the human immune system to stop outbreaks before they can trigger global lockdowns.
Instead of traditional vaccines, which train the body to recognise specific past pathogens, scientists are developing sustained innate immunoprophylactics (SIIPs). These are a new class of medicines designed to provide durable, broad-spectrum defence against rapidly mutating airborne threats.
Beyond vaccines: The race for programmable immunity
The strategy shifts pandemic prevention away from reactive vaccine development toward proactive genetic engineering. The most radical of the three initiatives, the iGATE project, is designing “smart” DNA medicines equipped with programmable synthetic biosensors.
These biosensors are engineered to lie completely dormant inside healthy human tissue, activating only when they detect the precise molecular signature of an invading virus. By combining synthetic biology with artificial intelligence, the gene circuits will trigger targeted antiviral defences on demand, potentially ending the cycle of mass hospitalisations during winter viral surges.
The economic and social implications of this shift are profound. By moving away from the “one bug, one drug” model, health systems could deploy single, long-lasting interventions capable of shielding frontline workers and vulnerable populations from entirely unknown pathogens—effectively insulating economies from the disruptive shutdowns seen in 2020.
Respiratory Virus Protection: Harnessing the body’s internal sensors
A second project focuses on MDA5, a critical sensor within the human innate immune system, to create an immediate, universal shield against influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
The team will test the treatment across cell models, human airway organoids, and animal systems to ensure a single administration offers lasting defense.
By coupling this innate signalling pathway with cutting-edge synthetic biology and delivery engineering, we aim to build a prophylactic that we hope to be effective not just against known viruses, but also against those yet to emerge,” commented Jan Rehwinkel, study lead and professor of innate immunology at Oxford’s MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine.
Concurrently, the MAGIC consortium (MAIT activation to Generate Immune Control) will investigate how to boost mucosal-associated invariant T cells using synthetic molecules to achieve long-term immune control.
The three initiatives unite specialists across Oxford’s physiology, anatomy, and genetics departments, reflecting the growing consensus that preventing the next pandemic requires breaking down traditional boundaries between computing, engineering, and medicine.
