Technology & Innovation Active Updated Jul 8, 2026
Researchers are trying to build one vaccine against the whole sarbecovirus family, the group that includes SARS, COVID-19 and the bat coronaviruses that have not yet jumped to humans, by aiming at the parts of the virus evolution has left largely untouched. The approaches include mosaic nanoparticles and AI-designed, fridge-stable DNA vaccines.
Jul 8, 2026 Latest
Researchers at the University of Cambridge used AI to scan genetic data from thousands of sarbecoviruses, identify conserved targets a virus is unlikely to mutate without losing fitness, and design a DNA vaccine stable without refrigeration and delivered via needle-free high-pressure liquid injection. The vaccine entered human trials for the first time, aiming to protect against the entire sarbecovirus family including strains that do not yet exist.
May 15, 2024
The first human results for a different broad approach came from the US Army. Walter Reed's SpFN, a ferritin nanoparticle, proved safe in an early trial of 29 people and produced antibodies against a wide panel of SARS-CoV-2 variants and other sarbecoviruses.
Jul 6, 2022
The next day, Oxford and Caltech announced up to 30 million dollars from CEPI to carry mosaic-8 toward people, saying they aimed to begin a first human trial in 2024.
Jul 5, 2022
Pamela Bjorkman's lab at Caltech reported a nanoparticle called mosaic-8, studded with pieces of eight different SARS-like viruses. In mice and monkeys it raised antibodies that neutralized coronaviruses left off the particle entirely, including the original SARS virus.
Mar 8, 2022
One of those bets, worth up to 42 million dollars, went to DIOSynVax, a University of Cambridge spinout. The group uses computer models of viral structure to design vaccine targets that cover many coronaviruses at once, the same approach behind the human trial that opened in 2026.
Mar 31, 2021
CEPI, the global coalition set up to head off pandemics, put up to 200 million dollars on the table for vaccines that could work against a whole family of coronaviruses at once, not just the strain in front of us.
The checkable promises in this story, tracked until they are kept or broken.
CEPI committed up to 200 million dollars toward vaccines that protect broadly across coronaviruses, funding betacoronavirus candidates for up to four years to reach clinical proof of concept.
CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations)
CEPI plans to invest up to US$200 million in promising vaccine candidates up to clinical proof of concept
Oxford and Caltech said their mosaic-8 pan-sarbecovirus vaccine would begin a Phase 1 human trial in 2024.
Oxford Vaccine Group and Caltech, in a CEPI-funded consortium
The consortium aims to commence a Phase 1 trial in 2024
By May 2024 Oxford's own update had pushed the start to early 2025. No first dosing of the mosaic-8 trial was confirmed in the public record as of mid-2026.
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