An Andhra University research team working under the guidance of Ravikiran Yedi, founder of TCABS-E Laboratories incubating at the university, on Sunday (November 23) announced that it has discovered a new mechanism by which the coronavirus evades COVID-19 vaccines.
According to their research conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic, the spike protein of the virus has an ‘escape mechanism’ from the antibodies produced by the vaccines, they said.
Speaking to The Hindu on Sunday, Mr. Ravikiran Yedidi said the viral spike protein component exhibits a transition between solid and liquid states when it fights with the antibodies generated by the vaccines. This escape mechanism’ confuses the antibodies. While antibodies are designed to fight the solid state of the spike protein of the Corona virus, they cannot fight the spike protein in the liquid state. This is why antibodies did not work on some patients during the pandemic period.
Their team has been working on this since 2022 and finally succeeded in publishing this discovery in Elsevier journal on November 19, 2025. The publication discusses the results based on molecular biology, biotechnology, biochemical and biophysical analysis, he added.
Additionally, computer simulations were also performed to support the laboratory findings. With this robust experimental analysis the team is confident that this phase transition will not only lead to reduced vaccine efficacy but also will generate more variants of coronavirus in future, he added.
Speaking about the solutions to this problem, Ravikiran Yedidi said: “We have discovered a problem. Now, we are going to invent a solution. We might need help from AI and Quantum Computing technologies in combination with biotechnology in order to come up with a plausible solution that can change the entire field of vaccine design.”
AU Vice-Chancellor G.P. Raja Sekhar while congratulating the team for deciphering this novel mechanism of vaccine-resistance, advised them to go deep into the research.
Published – November 23, 2025 07:26 pm IST
