Apriori to leverage foundational insights from the Crick's Legacy Study to further validate Octavia™ platform's ability to predict viral evolution and vaccine performance
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Apriori Bio, a biotechnology company focused on developing variant-resilient vaccines, today announced a research collaboration with the Francis Crick Institute to better understand critical aspects of immune response, with the goal of informing the development of more predictive and effective vaccines against present and emerging viral threats for patient benefit.
"We are delighted to collaborate with the Francis Crick Institute," said Craig Williams, MBA, Chief Executive Officer of Apriori Bio and CEO-Partner at Flagship Pioneering. "This collaboration will enhance our capacity to accurately predict viral evolution and develop innovative, prospective vaccine candidates. Together, we aim to enhance the global seasonal strain selection framework and improve vaccine effectiveness for individuals of all ages, immune histories, and geographic locations."
The collaboration will leverage output from the Crick's Legacy Study to further validate Apriori's biology-informed artificial intelligence platform, Octavia™, to both predict viral evolution and design vaccines that elicit the optimal immune responses against present and emerging viral threats. Legacy is a long-term research initiative between the Crick and the National Institute for Health and Care Research UCLH Biomedical Research Centre, designed to provide insights into immune responses to COVID vaccines and infections.
"The Legacy Study is an unparalleled resource for understanding how viruses evolve," said Dr. Emma Wall, a Lead Investigator for the Legacy Study at the Francis Crick Institute. "Together, we have an opportunity to translate meaningful insights that can be used to enhance vaccine design and safeguard communities worldwide by staying ahead of emerging health threats."
This public and private sector collaboration is the latest to be facilitated through Flagship Pioneering's UK initiative. Launched in 2023, the initiative serves as a bridge between the UK's rich research and life science networks and Flagship and its companies.
"This collaboration with the Crick, one of the world-leading scientific institutes, underscores Flagship Pioneering's dedication to leveraging world-class science to accelerate innovation across our portfolio companies," said Junaid Bajwa, M.D., Senior Partner and Head of the United Kingdom for Flagship Pioneering. "The integration of the Crick's Legacy Study and Apriori's Octavia platform demonstrates the immense potential to prepare for and address future health challenges."
About Apriori Bio
Apriori Bio is developing variant-resilient vaccines to better protect human health. Our pioneering approach centers on a unique technology platform, Octavia™. The platform allows us to survey the entire landscape of existing and potential viral variants to design new vaccines that elicit ideal immune responses against present and emerging health challenges. Apriori was founded in 2020 in Flagship Labs, a unit of Flagship Pioneering. For more information, visit www.aprioribio.com or follow us on LinkedIn and X.
About The Francis Crick Institute
The Francis Crick Institute is a biomedical discovery institute with the mission of understanding the fundamental biology underlying health and disease. Its work helps improve our understanding of why disease develops which promotes discoveries into new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat disease.
An independent organisation, its founding partners are the Medical Research Council (MRC), Cancer Research UK, Wellcome, UCL (University College London), Imperial College London and King's College London.
The Crick was formed in 2015, and in 2016 it moved into a brand new state-of-the-art building in central London which brings together 1500 scientists and support staff working collaboratively across disciplines, making it the biggest biomedical research facility under a single roof in Europe. For more information, please visit http://crick.ac.uk/
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