This project has been made possible in part by a grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative DAF, an advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
With continued support from imaging facilities, Australian researchers leverage cryo-electron microscopy to validate and drive the development of a new vaccine platform for mosquito-borne viruses like dengue and Zika.
(read in pdf format here: Impact Stories Around the World.pdf)
Building on long-standing collaborations with Monash University imaging facilities, virologist A/Prof. Jody Hobson-Peters and her team at the University of Queensland have developed a groundbreaking vaccine platform to combat mosquito-borne flavivirus diseases—including dengue, yellow fever, Zika, West Nile, and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV).
This new platform addresses major safety and manufacturing limitations found in existing vaccines. If successfully scaled, it could significantly reduce global health and economic burdens while contributing to several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, see below).
Mosquito-borne flaviviruses affect millions each year, posing severe health and economic risks in many parts of the world. Traditional vaccines are typically created by weakening or inactivating dangerous viruses. While effective, this method is slow, costly, and carries safety concerns that complicate production and deployment.
To overcome these challenges, Hobson-Peters and her team turned to a new strategy using a virus they had discovered a few years earlier. This Binjari virus is a flavivirus that only infects insects and poses no risk to humans. By replacing Binjari’s surface proteins with those from harmful flaviviruses, the researchers created a hybrid virus—one that tricks the immune system into mounting a defense, but without the risk of actual infection.
This patented hybrid system acts like an “inverted Trojan horse”: on the outside, it mimics dangerous viruses closely enough to stimulate a strong immune response; on the inside, it’s harmless. What’s more, the surface can be easily modified, allowing the same platform to target multiple diseases. This innovation fills critical gaps in vaccine technology, offering a safe, adaptable, and scalable solution.
Designing this hybrid vaccine required researchers to see the virus structure in extreme detail—something only cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) can provide. This complex imaging method requires years of experience to produce clear, usable data.
That’s where the collaboration with Monash University’s Ramaciotti Centre for Cryo Electron Microscopy came in. Dr Hariprasad Venugopal, senior microscopist at the Centre, led the imaging experiments and ensured their scientific reliability.
To achieve usable images, “our main effort is to make sure that at the time of imaging, we achieve the best possible results both optically and in sample preparation—getting the cleanest ice, the best particle distribution, and enough virus particles in each image to properly analyze,” said Dr Venugopal.
“We bring the high-end part—that is, the electron microscopy—and simplify it for people… all of those things go on in the background and help everyone.”
These contributions often go unseen but are crucial to scientific success. Years of accumulated knowledge from similar projects allow facility scientists to fine-tune each experiment, troubleshoot technical challenges, and adapt workflows to different biological systems.
The vaccine platform emerged through a highly collaborative effort backed by Australian government funding: including National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Grants (APP1164216, 2020–2023) of AU$1,043,871.49 (APP2004582, 2021–2024) of $1,149,487 and an Australian Research Council Grant (LP210301351, 2023–2027) of AU$969,141.
Teams led by A/Prof. Jody Hobson-Peters and Dr Daniel Watterson at the University of Queensland, alongside A/Prof. Fasséli Coulibaly at Monash University, used cryo-EM to validate the structural integrity of the Binjari-based vaccine particles. The expert technical work of platform scientists Dr Hariprasad Venugopal and Dr Lou Brillault was central to these achievements.
To accelerate impact, the team focused first on developing low-containment animal vaccines, which are faster to bring to market. This approach proved highly effective for Japanese encephalitis virus vaccines in pigs, with early trials showing remarkable success.
Key collaborators also include the Elizabeth Macarthur Agriculture Institute, QIMR Berghofer, Treidlia Biovet, the Centre for Crocodile Research, and PRI Farming all of which helped scale the project’s real-world applications.
The hybrid vaccine platform has already delivered tangible results, including:
Together, these outcomes support public health, enhance food security, and reduce economic losses. As mosquito-borne diseases continue to expand due to climate change, the platform offers a flexible, scalable tool for future challenges.
At-a-Glance Information
In A Nutshell
SDGs Addressed
