Building the Future of Vaccines

At the World Vaccine Congress last month, I connected with global leaders examining how these shifts are reshaping vaccine development and delivery. I joined my colleagues from ATCC, including Ruth Cheng, PhD, Patrick Boyle, PhD, and Heather Couch, PhD, to contribute to discussions spanning biodefense, assay integrity, AI in vaccine R&D, and domestic manufacturing resilience.

These conversations made clear that advancing vaccine science at scale will require a stronger foundation built on authenticated biological materials, high-quality data, and shared standards that enable reproducibility and global coordination.

Below are my top four takeaways from the Congress and how ATCC is helping to shape what comes next.

1. Digital biology will transform vaccine discovery, but hurdles remain.

One of the most prominent shifts discussed at the Congress is the rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and computational biology into vaccine development, from accelerating antigen discovery and modeling immune responses to optimizing vaccine platforms.

However, the effectiveness of AI-driven discovery depends entirely on the quality of the underlying biological data. Without validated samples and standardized datasets, even the most advanced algorithms can produce unreliable or non-reproducible results. As vaccine R&D becomes increasingly data-driven, grounding digital models in validated biological reality will be critical to scaling innovation.

The questions of “do you know where your data comes from?” and “is it what you think it is? have never been more relevant and critical. In my presentation on ensuring assay integrity, we discussed the importance of data provenance and the proliferation of misclassification base on sequencing data.

Data issues and their subsequent impact on reproducibility can significantly degrade the integrity of an assay. Examples include misclassification of control-strains used by clinical microbiology labs for a widely used testing platform, different phenotypes for the “same” strains, and unknown history or chain-of-custody of materials or data, leading to “reproducible, but incorrect results.”

2. Reproducibility is becoming a strategic priority.

Reproducibility emerged as a central concern across multiple sessions, particularly in the context of global health decision-making. As vaccine science becomes more complex, ensuring that results can be replicated across laboratories and geographies is more important than ever.

Speakers emphasized that reproducibility requires more than rigorous experimental design. It depends on:

• Authenticated biological materials 
• Standardized methods and protocols 
• High-quality, well-annotated data 

These principles are foundational to scientific credibility, particularly in high-stakes areas such as vaccine policy and public health. Without consistent, well-characterized inputs, even well-designed studies can produce results that are difficult to validate or scale.

3. Manufacturing resilience requires shared standards.

As global efforts expand vaccine manufacturing capacity, particularly through regional hubs, the need for harmonized standards is becoming increasingly urgent. Discussions at the Congress highlighted key challenges associated with decentralized manufacturing, including:

• Maintaining consistent product quality across facilities 
• Aligning regulatory expectations across regions 
• Standardizing assays and validation processes 

These issues were central to sessions featuring ATCC leaders, including my presentation on assay integrity and Heather Couch’s participation in conversations around domestic health security and manufacturing partnerships.

Authenticated physical materials coupled with reference-quality genome sequences are essential to ensuring consistency across distributed manufacturing networks. Without them, even small variations in inputs, assays, or validation processes can lead to reproducible but incorrect results and variables in product quality.

4. Biosecurity and preparedness depend on trusted infrastructure.

The importance of biosecurity and pandemic preparedness remains front and center. The Congress reinforced that global readiness depends not only on rapid scientific response but also on the strength of underlying infrastructure.

Key priorities discussed included:

• Early detection and characterization of emerging pathogens 
• Rapid development of diagnostics and vaccines 
• Secure, reliable access to biological materials 

ATCC’s participation in the Biodefense and Biosecurity Workshop, including sessions on AI guardrails and assay integrity, highlighted the growing intersection of biology, data, and security.

Trusted biological repositories are a cornerstone of preparedness. Without secure, well-characterized materials and accessible, high-quality data, efforts to detect, characterize, and respond to emerging threats may be slowed, limiting the effectiveness of public health response.

Looking ahead

The World Vaccine Congress made it clear that the future of vaccine innovation will not be defined by any single breakthrough technology. Instead, it will be shaped by the strength of the scientific infrastructure that connects discovery, development, and deployment.

One common thread emerged: progress depends on trusted, standardized, and well-integrated biological materials, data, and systems.

At ATCC, we focus on connecting authenticated biological materials with high-quality omics data and globally recognized standards to advance vaccine science and strengthen global health resilience.

As the field continues to evolve, this integration will be essential to turning scientific potential into real-world impact. ATCC’s approach helps ensure that AI-driven discovery is grounded in reliable inputs, that research findings can be reproduced across laboratories, and that vaccines can be developed and manufactured with consistency across regions.

Did you know?

ATCC materials and data are used in over 30 national and international reference standards.