UCL and Imperial College London win ARIA grant to protect against respiratory viruses

UCL and Imperial College London have secured funding from the UK government’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) to develop a new type of medicine that could protect people against a wide range of respiratory viruses - including flu, RSV, and the common cold. 

The programme, part of ARIA’s £46 million Sustained Viral Resilience programme, will be led by Professor Ajit Lalvani at Imperial College London, with Dr Claire Smith and Professor Marko Nikolic (UCL) co-leading in vitro studies and multiomics technology platforms, respectively.  

The work focuses on the body’s innate immune system - our first line of defence against infection - which acts within hours of encountering a virus, long before the immune responses targeted by conventional vaccines kick in. 

Why some people don’t get infected 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people became exposed to the viruses, but never tested positive or developed symptoms - even after days of close contact. Something in their immune system stopped the infection before it could take hold. 

Scientists suspect this protection comes from the body’s innate immune system - its immediate, general-purpose defences that spring into action within hours of encountering any virus, long before the more targeted responses triggered by vaccines. But exactly what those rapid responses look like in people who stay healthy, and why they fail in others, remains poorly understood. 

This programme will study exactly what those protective responses look like, and whether they can be triggered artificially using a new class of medicine called sustained innate immunoprophylactics, or SIIPs. Unlike a vaccine, a SIIP would not need to be tailored to a specific virus - it would work by priming the immune system’s general defences, potentially offering protection against flu, RSV, rhinovirus, and even new pandemic viruses. 

How the research will work 

The programme will identify those people naturally resistant to infection during controlled infection studies, or by tracking who gets infected and who does not after natural exposure to respiratory viruses at home. UCL researchers will then use cells donated by study participants to test exactly which parts of the immune response are driving protection - and whether those responses can be switched on artificially. 

Advanced data analysis, including artificial intelligence, will be used to piece together findings and identify the specific immune signals that predict protection - knowledge that will directly inform the design of the first SIIP candidates. 

Building UK capability 

As well as generating new scientific knowledge, the programme will create lasting infrastructure for the UK - including internationally accessible sample banks from study participants, and a ready-to-use testing pipeline that future SIIP developers can use to evaluate their medicines quickly and rigorously. 

Links

• Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA)
• Dr Claire Smith’s academic profile
• Prof. Marko Nikolic’s academic profile