Infectious Diseases & Vaccines

Infectious diseases continue to pose a major threat to global health, demanding vaccines and therapeutics that are both highly effective and rigorously characterized. However, traditional protein and vaccine engineering, limited to the 20 natural amino acids, often cannot provide the level of precision needed to control antigen structure, conjugation patterns, or functional behavior in complex host–pathogen settings. As a preclinical research services provider and a pioneer in genetic code expansion (GCE) technology, our company delivers tailored solutions for infectious disease research and vaccine development. Leveraging our proprietary GCEngine platform for orthogonal aaRS/tRNA pair identification and optimization, we enable controlled, site-specific incorporation of non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs) into proteins. This capability equips developers and researchers with advanced molecular tools to investigate pathogen biology and to design next-generation vaccines with the potential for improved efficacy and safety.

Applications of ncAA Incorporation in Infectious Disease & Vaccine Research

Site-specific incorporation of ncAAs offers a powerful and versatile toolbox for advancing infectious disease research and vaccine development. By moving beyond the constraints of the natural genetic code, this technology enables precise manipulation of pathogenic proteins and vaccine immunogens, opening new pathways for mechanistic investigation, diagnostic innovation, and therapeutic intervention.

Fig.1 GCE-based live-attenuated vaccine design (Huang, Y., and Liu, T., 2018)

• Precision Antigen Engineering for Vaccine Design
  Leveraging our proprietary GCEngine platform, we offer bespoke services for the rational design and development of advanced vaccine candidates. By enabling the site-specific incorporation of ncAAs, we overcome key constraints of traditional vaccine design, allowing precise chemical and structural modifications that are designed to improve immunogenicity, stability, and overall performance.
• Mechanistic Study of Pathogen Entry and Replication
  By incorporating site-specific biophysical probes into pathogen proteins, researchers can perform a detailed dissection of host-pathogen interactions. This supports real-time, high-resolution tracking of entry dynamics, protein-protein interactions, and replication processes within live cells.
• Highly Specific Diagnostic Development
  Introducing unique chemical handles into recombinant antigens allows the engineering of highly specific capture surfaces, leading to diagnostic assays with significantly reduced background noise and enhanced sensitivity and specificity for detecting pathogen exposure or presence.
• Pathogen-Targeting Therapeutic Development
  GCE technology empowers the engineering of therapeutic proteins (e.g., antibodies) by incorporating ncAAs. This enables site-specific conjugation of payloads, stability enhancements, and the creation of bispecific molecules that target pathogen-immune cell receptors.
• GCE-Based Live-Attenuated Vaccine Strategies
  By making the replication or survival of engineered pathogens dependent on the presence of ncAAs, GCE technology enables the design of novel live-attenuated vaccine approaches. Such constructs can be tuned for safety and controllability while maintaining relevant antigenic presentation, supporting innovative prophylactic and therapeutic vaccine concepts.

Our Services

From high-throughput identification of orthogonal aaRS/tRNA pairs to in vitro validation of ncAA incorporation, and in vivo application, our end-to-end GCEngine platform delivers a comprehensive suite of services tailored for infectious disease and vaccine research. We support epitope-focused antigen design, structure-guided vaccine optimization, live-attenuated pathogen engineering, and diagnostic assay development, empowering partners to accelerate projects with precision and efficiency.

Customized Solutions for Infectious Disease and Vaccine R&D

Target Validation & Screening

• High-throughput identification and optimization of orthogonal aaRS/tRNA pairs functional in relevant pathogen systems (e.g., mammalian cells for viral targets, bacterial systems).
• Screening diverse ncAA libraries for optimal incorporation efficiency and minimal impact on target protein function (e.g., receptor binding, enzymatic activity).

Therapeutic & Vaccine Protein Engineering

• Site-specific conjugation of payloads, tags, or stabilizers to monoclonal antibodies or bispecifics targeting infectious agents.
• Development of site-specifically modified vaccine antigens with enhanced stability, controlled adjuvant attachment, or extended serum half-life.
• Engineering of antiviral peptides or novel antimicrobial proteins incorporating functional ncAAs.

Diagnostic & Probe Development

• Design and production of recombinant pathogen antigens or reporter proteins containing bioorthogonal handles for ultrasensitive, wash-free diagnostic assays.
• Generation of photocrosslinking probes to map host-pathogen protein-protein interactions critical to infection mechanisms.

ncAA Incorporated Vaccine Development Services

Leveraging our proprietary GCEngine platform, we offer bespoke services for the rational design and development of superior vaccine candidates. By enabling the site-specific incorporation of ncAAs, we overcome the constraints of traditional vaccine design, allowing precise chemical and structural modifications that improve immunogenicity, stability, and efficacy.

ncAA Incorporated Epitope Optimization for Vaccine

Precisely incorporating ncAAs into key B-cell or T-cell epitopes within viral or bacterial antigens to enable site-specific stabilization of immunodominant conformations, attachment of immunostimulatory adjuvants, or introduction of chemical handles for controlled carrier conjugation, maximizing epitope-specific immune responses.

ncAA Incorporated Peptide Vaccine Development

Engineering synthetic peptide immunogens incorporating ncAAs to enhance protease resistance and in vivo stability, support site-specific multimerization for stronger immunogenicity, enable precise conjugation to carrier proteins or nanoparticles via bioorthogonal chemistry, or can be designed to incorporate built-in adjuvants, overcoming traditional limitations of peptide-based vaccines.

ncAA Incorporated Protein Vaccine Development

By incorporating ncAAs into recombinant viral envelope proteins, bacterial toxins, or other antigenic subunits, our platform can support stabilization strategies for prefusion conformations, facilitate precise adjuvant conjugation, and incorporate traceable tags without disrupting antigenicity, developing safer, more potent vaccine candidates with enhanced properties.

Contact Us

Combining expertise in high-throughput orthogonal pair development with deep knowledge of infectious disease and vaccinology, our GCEngine platform delivers advantages: faster therapeutic and vaccine development through precise biologic modification, improved product homogeneity and efficacy via site-specific control, and unique molecular tools for probing complex biological mechanisms. To discover how our GCE technology can accelerate your infectious disease or vaccine program, please contact us.

References

1. Huang, Yujia, and Tao Liu. "Therapeutic applications of genetic code expansion." Synthetic and systems biotechnology 3.3 (2018): 150-158.
2. Fok, Jelle A, and Clemens Mayer. "Genetic-Code-Expansion Strategies for Vaccine Development." Chembiochem : a European journal of chemical biology 21.23 (2020): 3291-3300.