title: iVAX: An integrated toolkit for the selection and optimization of antigens and the design of epitope-driven vaccines.
abstract: Computational vaccine design, also known as computational vaccinology, encompasses epitope mapping, antigen selection and immunogen design using computational tools. The iVAX toolkit is an integrated set of tools that has been in development since 1998 by De Groot and Martin. It comprises a suite of immunoinformatics algorithms for triaging candidate antigens, selecting immunogenic and conserved T cell epitopes, eliminating regulatory T cell epitopes, and optimizing antigens for immunogenicity and protection against disease. iVAX has been applied to vaccine development programs for emerging infectious diseases, cancer antigens and biodefense targets. Several iVAX vaccine design projects have had success in pre-clinical studies in animal models and are progressing toward clinical studies. The toolkit now incorporates a range of immunoinformatics tools for infectious disease and cancer immunotherapy vaccine design. This article will provide a guide to the iVAX approach to computational vaccinology.
authors.affiliation: a Institute for Immunology and Informatics; University of Rhode Island ; Providence , RI USA.
authors.forename: Leonard
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Moise
authors.forename: Andres
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gutierrez
authors.forename: Farzana
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kibria
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tassone
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Frances
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Terry
authors.forename: Bill
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Anne S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: De Groot
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000941:Antigens / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods*; D000939:Epitopes / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens; D000939:Epitopes; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic
keywords: Cancer immunotherapy; HLA; T cell; computational vaccinology; conservatrix; epiMatrix; epitope; epitope-based vaccine; epitope-driven vaccine; iVAX; immunoinformatics; janusMatrix