c/futurology · by Lugh@futurology.today · 59d

AI-designed universal vaccine clears first human trial, targets future coronavirus threats with needle-free delivery.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-ai-universal-vaccine-human-trial.html

73 points · 31 comments · view on lemmy.world

31 Comments

RobotToaster@mander.xyz · 40 pts · 59d (1 reply)

Universal coronavirus vaccine, a vaccine against everything would induce all sorts of autoimmune disorders.

There's another universal kind-of-vaccine in development, which doesn't tell your body what to recognize but instead tells your body how to react (primes the immune system to respond faster to respiratory infections with localized antibodies, etc)

tristynalxander@mander.xyz · 23 pts · 58d (8 replies)

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Evotech@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 58d

It's not gen ai. It's ai in the more traditional sense

darkangelazuarl@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 57d

Yeah, Protein design is absurdly complicated and time consuming. Collaborative computing programs like folding at home have helped a lot but its still like trying to find a grain of sand in a desert. Having a well tuned AI help narrow down what needs additional attention via other computer models or even moving past computer models is a reasonable use of a well tuned specific AI. Not these general purpose LLMs that just tell you what you want to hear.

PotatoPie@lemmy.zip · -4 pts · 58d (5 replies)

I'm anti AI but i have to give it to the technology, for once, it's used for something good and for a task no one wanted to manually do, with incredible results

Until the sector is regulated i'll just say this never happened

gedfromgont@piefed.ca · 4 pts · 58d (4 replies)

Technically this probably isn't AI but rather ML (machine learning) which is something that made great strides in science already in the past decade or so. E.g. alphafold, a program to predict folding of protein sequences predates all LLM crap and has become a cornerstone of anything protein expression.

tristynalxander@mander.xyz · 2 pts · 57d (2 replies)

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gedfromgont@piefed.ca · 3 pts · 57d (1 reply)

So when I talk about LLM, I mean in first line ChatGPT since it was the big event bringing LLMs to the public.

Alphafolds first version came out in 2018, ChatGPT was only released in 2022. I don't know where AI image generation comes into this, but that wasn't my point anyway.

tristynalxander@mander.xyz · 1 pts · 57d

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wrinkle2409@lemmy.cafe · 2 pts · 57d

Machine learning is categorically part of AI. It is just that people started slopply using the term to mean exclusively LLMs and generative models. The problem has never been AI but rather who's using it

aeronmelon@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 59d (2 replies)

Oh, right. The vaccine. The vaccine for COVID. The vaccine chosen specifically to kill COVID. COVID’s vaccine. That vaccine?

WolvenSpectre@lemmy.ca · 9 pts · 58d (1 reply)

No, because Vaccines don't kill Covid. Vaccines teach your immune system to respond better and on the whole have better outcomes. If vaccines killed Covid, then they would give a shot to everyone with Long Covid and cure them.

passenger@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 57d

Afaik long covid is caused not by covid being still in the person but rather brain / lung / etc. damage it has done.

Anyways vaccines don't kill the virus so you are right.

Viruses aren't alive anyways...

Gladaed@feddit.org · 17 pts · 59d

Note that AI has been a cornerstone in high dimensional optimization for a while.

bl4ckp1xx13@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 15 pts · 59d (10 replies)

Useful case of AI. 👏

whats_a_lemmy@midwest.social · 17 pts · 58d (2 replies)

The original press release stated this was done using machine learning, which has been a mainstay in biomedical science for a while. It's what "AI" used to refer to before the current generation of bullshit generators.

bl4ckp1xx13@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 0 pts · 58d (1 reply)

Yes, but from what I understand traditional machine learning is more about introspective pattern recognition and not necessarily inference-based synthesis?

a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 58d

Those are certainly word.

Zachariah@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 58d (4 replies)

it’s the stringent verification of results that makes it useful

Gladaed@feddit.org · 5 pts · 58d (3 replies)

That's true for all research in medicine. The suggestion to not check for errors is mental and would only be suggested by non technical people.

Zachariah@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 58d (2 replies)

unfortunately, this how most companies are run

Gladaed@feddit.org · 1 pts · 58d (1 reply)

I am sorry, but did you read that I was talking about medicine first and foremost?

Also using evidence based approaches can be beneficial for longevity of any company and if you truly believe otherwise, then that's your perogative.

Zachariah@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 58d

That's true for all research in medicine.

Yes, that’s why I pointed out why it works in this field.

The suggestion to not check for errors is mental and would only be suggested by non technical people.

The way people run companies in others fields is mental, and they want to use AI without verification. They shouldn’t, but they do (hence the “unfortunately”). And even when they say they’re evidence based, it’s usually cherry picked to justify what they were going to do anyway.

Despair@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 58d (1 reply)

It's a jet injector.

Numerous studies have found cross-infection of diseases from jet injections. An experiment using mice, published in 1985, showed that jet injectors would frequently transmit the viral infection lactate dehydrogenase elevating virus (LDV) from one mouse to another.[16] Another study used the device on a calf, then tested the fluid remaining in the injector for blood. Every injector they tested had detectable blood in a quantity sufficient to pass on a virus such as hepatitis B.[15]

noxypaws@pawb.social · 1 pts · 58d

I'm curious about this too. Surely they're using some modern advancements in the tech that have addressed that issue, SURELY.

evenglow@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 58d

"We've converted vaccine development from being reactive to being future proof. Our vaccines will continue to provide protection against viruses even as they mutate into new strains," said Professor Jonathan Heeney from the Lab of Viral Zoonotics, University of Cambridge's Department of Veterinary Medicine, the scientific lead of the research.

"We've overcome the problem of traditional vaccines, which have limited protection. It means we can escape the constant cycle of chasing the virus variants circulating in humans and updating the vaccines to try to catch up, like a dog chasing its tail."

DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 58d

I'm all for machine learning used this way. As long as the trials are as stringent as with any other method.

SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 58d (1 reply)

Safe with no side effects does not mean that it works. A glass of water is safe with no side effects.

Omgpwnies@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 57d

A glass of water is safe with no side effects.

A glass of water can kill you if ingested wrong, say no to DHMO!

CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 58d (2 replies)

Will anti vaxxers find AI formulated vaccines more or less abhorrent?

Snapz@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 58d

They don't know yet, they haven't been told what to feel.

Bristlecone@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 58d

Great question. Most of them probably more so I'd imagine still

Evotech@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 58d

Imagine making that avd getting reduced to "ai designed" lol