Collaborative Study Led by Jalatyan, Aznauryan, and Nersisyan Presents hafoe, a Tool for Chimeric AAV Analysis, in Nature: Gene Therapy

We’re excited to share that our paper “hafoe: a computational tool for the analysis of chimeric AAV libraries” has been published in Nature: Gene Therapy!

The paper introduces hafoe, a novel computational tool developed to support the design of more effective gene therapy vectors. Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) are non-pathogenic and widely employed in gene therapy for the targeted delivery of therapeutic genes to specific cell types. However, identifying viral variants with optimal tissue tropism remains a significant challenge. To address this, researchers often use DNA shuffling, a technique that recombines genetic segments from multiple viral serotypes to generate thousands of novel AAV variants. However, it is challenging to trace the origins of these chimeric sequences and evaluate their performance.

"hafoe" overcomes this limitation by enabling comprehensive analysis of chimeric AAV libraries, allowing researchers to efficiently pinpoint the most promising candidates for targeted gene delivery. In experimental studies involving human dermal fibroblasts and dendritic cells, as well as canine muscle, and liver tissues, hafoe facilitated the discovery of novel AAV variant candidates with enhanced delivery properties, advancing the potential for more precise and effective gene therapies.

Led by Tatevik Jalatyan, Erik Aznauryan and Lilit Nersisyan, this study is a collaboration between ABI, Wyss Institute at Harvard University, Rejuvenate Bio, and the Institute of Molecular Biology NAS RA  supported by the Gates Foundation, ARPA Institute, and HESC RA.

This research will be presented as a poster at the ISMB/ECCB 2025 conference in Liverpool.