Seeking Feedback: Positioning an African Vaccine Platform Centre for Global Impact

By emmannaemeka @ 2025-09-13T00:24 (+11)

Hello everyone,

I lead an existing biosecurity and vaccine platform centre in Nigeria, supported with startup funding from Emergent Ventures. Our mission is to contribute to pandemic preparedness and AMR response from Africa — a region where infrastructure is scarce, but the risks are real.

So far, we’ve been working on:

• Vaccine platform development: In collaboration with Prof. Roderick’s lab at the University of Waterloo, we are developing a phage-based vaccine platform. His group focuses on platform design, while our centre is preparing to apply AI tools to optimize and scale vaccine epitopes that can be mounted on phage nanoparticles.
• AMR mitigation: We are building local expertise in bacteriophages, including early applications in aquaculture biosecurity, to address resistant infections outside of human health.
• Capacity building: Establishing infrastructure and training young scientists to engage in countermeasure development in low-resource African contexts.

My motivation stems from the COVID-19 experience: I was vaccinated, but I saw firsthand how scarce access was across Africa. That inequity convinced me to work on building platform capacity locally, so that during the next pandemic Africa could move faster rather than wait for external supply.

Where I’m still struggling:

• Funding for phage and platform work remains difficult, especially compared to mainstream approaches.
• I’m debating whether our long-term comparative advantage lies in phage vaccines (low infrastructure, scalable in Africa) or whether we should branch into AAV or mRNA, which are more globally established but infrastructure-heavy.
• I do not yet have direct expertise in AI-driven vaccine design. I’m considering a capacity-building lab visit to acquire these skills — but I’m unsure if this is the best next step for impact.

What I’d love feedback on

• From a longtermist perspective, does it make sense to double down on a phage vaccine platform, or diversify into AAV/mRNA?
• How can we frame the centre’s work — given our Waterloo collaboration, Emergent Ventures support, and long-term goals — so that it resonates more with global funders and biosecurity priorities?
• Are there examples of projects that have successfully repositioned themselves to bridge local capacity with global risk reduction?
• Do you think it would be valuable for me to pursue a lab visit to learn AI-driven vaccine design, and if so, what kind of environment would be most beneficial?
• More broadly, what would make a centre like ours a useful partner in the global biosecurity ecosystem?

I would deeply appreciate your sincere, critical feedback on how best to position and grow this centre for maximum global impact.

Thank you for your time and insights.