971509A Novel Diagnostic for anti-Zika Antibodies to Inform Deployment of Zika VaccinesClosedSmall Business Research InitiativeInnovate UKA NOVEL "PREGNANCY-TEST-LIKE" DIAGNOSTIC FOR ZIKA VIRUS THAT WILL ALLOW THE INTELLIGENT DEVELOPMENT AND EFFECTIVE USE OF ZIKA VACCINES The Zika epidemic is a global problem with profound consequences for nations and families that will take decades to unfold. While there is an urgent need for a new vaccine against Zika, there is a similar urgency to accurately monitor, map and contain outbreaks of Zika (which is easily confused, symptom-wise, with other infections). Likewise it will be important to deploy precious vaccine resources effectively in the field in resource-limited countries, making sure the vaccine is deployed to 'current' outbreak-areas as a priority, as their geography changes over time, and saving health-care costs on unecessary use of vaccine. Also, it is important to monitor the effectiveness and safety of development/deployment of novel vaccines and to understand the risks of vaccine development against this 'new' virus, which is only one 'cog' in a rapidly evolving ecosystem of related viruses. Antibodies (resulting from prior infections with related viruses) already present in the blood of patients experiencing Zika virus infection may influence the course of the disease or the result of Zika vaccination (e.g. whether the naturally-encoutnered Zika virus crosses the placenta and damages the foetus, or whether vaccine strains might do the same thing), and antibodies generated by Zika vaccination may influence the occurrence of haemorrhagic fever upon encounter with dengue (a related virus that co-circulates with Zika). Current diagnostic practice is not adequate to properly enable the intelligent deployment of vaccines because it is based in central diagnostic labs that require the transport of blood samples from diverse, sometimes remote, areas of endemic countries, which is expensive and inefficient, and which may not be possible in many instances due to lack of the necessary refrigerated transport infrasctructure. What is needed to enable effective monitoring and safe development of Zika vaccines is a cheap 'point-of-care' diagnostic test, i.e. a test that can be run without the need for clean water, electricity or equipment - e.g. like a DIY pregnancy test, that can be operated in the home or in a Doctor's surgery. This is the subject of the current project. The new test will help define which subjects are eligible to receive Zika vaccination, maximising the safety and effectiveness of its deployment. It will also help define whether a subject has responded adequately to the vaccine (i.e. reached a 'to be determined' protective level of Zika-specific antibodies) or whether they may require a further dose (a factor that may vary in differing endemic territories, depending on prior exposure to related viruses). In order to deliver the test Excivion has fielded a world-class team of experts with the necessary skills in virology/immunology and in diagnostics development and evaluation in an endemic public-health setting. The project takes advantage of an unique set of viral proteins developed (by the applicant company) under SBRI funding which promise antibody-based diagnostics of unparalleled specificity (as well as safer vaccines).