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Pandemic Preparedness Capabilities

Maintaining and expanding Sweden’s capacity to assess virus neutralisation: “SwedNEXT”


PI(s)/Head responsible for the resource:

Daniel Sheward

Host organisation(s):

Karolinska Institutet

Resource description:

Neutralising antibodies emerged as the most reliable correlate of protection from infection and severe disease during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Neutralisation assays thus proved critical to rapid vaccine development and regulatory approvals that enabled emergency use authorisations within unprecedented timeframes. Our previous SwedN PLP project established a population-level neutralisation monitoring system in Sweden, delivering critical real-time data that directly informed WHO and ECDC policy decisions.

Maintaining neutralisation assay infrastructure and expertise is crucial for pandemic preparedness, but risks being lost during inter-pandemic periods. This proposal aims to sustain this proven capability through continued SARS-CoV-2 monitoring as well as active support of pre-clinical vaccine development programs.

Our established computational models utilising global sequence data will provide continuous monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 evolution and variant emergence. Upon identification of concerning lineages or mutations, we will rapidly characterise immune evasion potential using our neutralization platform, assessing both Swedish population-level immunity as well as the extent to which the available vaccines could boost protection against the emerging variant.

We will expand our pseudovirus platform to additional priority pathogens with pandemic potential to address broader pandemic preparedness needs and support pre-clinical vaccine development leveraging our established mRNA vaccine capabilities. Together, this will provide essential neutralisation data across diverse viral targets, ensuring continuous value and preserving critical neutralisation infrastructure, technical skills, and institutional memory. By maintaining established infrastructure and expertise during inter-pandemic periods, we ensure rapid response capability when new threats emerge, transforming reactive pandemic response into proactive preparedness.

Contact information:

Daniel Sheward
Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology,Karolinska Institutet
Email: Daniel.Sheward@ki.se