【From Research to Real-World Applications】 A research project of real-time evaluation of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness by the JC School of Public Health and Primary Care (JCSPHPC) is in discussion to be adopted by Singapore authorities to inform policy decision making.
Singapore's Minister for Health Mr Ong Ye Kung announced at the Hong Kong ASEAN Summit 2022 today (3 November) that the country was exploring a collaboration with the Chinese University of Hong Kong on a prediction model that can estimate population-level immunity against new COVID-19 strains and their potential severity, based on their genetic makeup.
Prof. Maggie Wang, Associate Professor of JCSPHPC, is one of the leaders of the research team. "By applying the model, healthcare workers and policymakers can evaluate the protection of COVID-19 vaccines against new variants and hence predict the scale of the upcoming waves of epidemic," she remarked.
The innovative algorithms enable in silico real-time prediction of vaccine protection against novel variants through virus sequencing data. This approach can be applied to design vaccines with optimal estimated effectiveness, and improve vaccine clinical trial design and the evaluation of vaccines before they are deployed. The new technology can also be applied to the development and evaluation of vaccines for other viruses, including influenza vaccines.
More about the research findings: https://www.sphpc.cuhk.edu.hk/post/research-real-time-bioinformatics-platform-to-predict-covid-19-vaccine-effectiveness