About This Project
Six years after COVID-19, the threat from emerging and re-emerging viruses remains. We need antiviral strategies that viruses cannot easily escape.
Therapeutic interfering particles (TIPs) are engineered virus variants that disrupt virus growth while triggering protective immunity. We hypothesize that next-generation TIPs can suppress viral replication in ways that are more resistant to viral escape than existing antiviral strategies. Our project will start work to test this hypothesis.
Ask the Scientists
Join The DiscussionWhat is the context of this research?
The COVID-19 pandemic reminded us how vulnerable society remains to rapidly evolving viruses. Vaccines and antiviral drugs can be highly effective, but viruses often evolve ways to escape them. Even today, SARS-CoV-2, influenza, measles, hanta and other viruses continue to circulate and re-emerge. While COVID is now managed more like other seasonal respiratory infections, we still lack durable strategies that remain effective as viruses evolve.
My lab studies how viruses grow, spread, and change over time. One lesson from our decades of research is that viral evolution is not an exception—it is the rule. This project explores a different approach to antiviral defense: harnessing naturally occurring defective viral genomes that arise during virus replication. These defective copies cannot cause disease but can interfere with normal virus growth. Understanding how they work may reveal new ways to control infections that remain effective even as viruses evolve.
What is the significance of this project?
The risk of future pandemics is increasing. Climate change, urbanization, and global travel are bringing humans into closer contact with birds, bats, wild rodents and other animals that harbor many viruses capable of infecting people. These shifting ecological boundaries increase the chances that new viruses—or familiar ones returning in new forms—will emerge and spread rapidly through human populations.
To prepare for this future, we need antiviral strategies that remain effective even as viruses evolve. Therapeutic interfering particles (TIPs) represent a promising possibility. TIPs are virus-derived genomes that replicate only in the presence of the virus and interfere with its growth. Because they depend on the virus to replicate, TIPs may evolve alongside it, potentially limiting the virus’s ability to escape. If successful, this strategy could provide a new class of antivirals designed to remain effective over longer time scales.
What are the goals of the project?
This project takes a first step toward testing whether therapeutic interfering particles (TIPs) can be engineered as durable antiviral agents. Our broader research combines lab work with computer modeling to understand how viruses and TIPs grow and evolve together.
The Experiment.com funds will support selected near-term aspects of that effort: cell and virus culture, pilot experiments, and computational analysis. These will help us refine candidate TIP designs, improve assays, and generate preliminary evidence needed to guide larger-scale studies.
Fully testing whether TIPs can reliably suppress viral growth and resist escape will require much more support for personnel, sequencing, sustained passage experiments, and validation, which we are pursuing through external grant proposals. This crowdfunding campaign provides seed support to keep the work moving and strengthen the foundation for those next steps.
Budget
The requested $10,000 will provide seed support for a focused phase of our broader TIP research program. Funds will help cover cell and virus culture supplies, molecular biology reagents, selected analytical and sequencing costs, computational work, and dissemination of peer-reviewed findings. The full research program—requiring sustained experiments, broader validation, and support for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers—will require substantially greater funding, which we are pursuing through external grant proposals. This campaign instead supports immediate, practical needs that keep the research moving, extend preliminary findings, and strengthen the foundation for larger-scale studies.
Endorsed by
Project Timeline
This one-year seed project will support selected experimental and computational steps within our broader TIP research program. We will refine quantitative assays and models, test selected TIP–virus combinations, and conduct focused pilot studies of TIP persistence, interference, and evolutionary dynamics. These studies will help us identify promising directions, strengthen our methods, and generate preliminary evidence for larger-scale studies.
Jun 08, 2026
Project Launched
Aug 02, 2026
Project Launched
Oct 15, 2026
Establish and refine quantitative cell-culture assays for measuring virus growth and TIP interference, and begin testing selected TIP–virus combinations.
Feb 15, 2027
Conduct focused pilot passage studies to characterize TIP persistence, interference with virus replication, and early evidence of virus–TIP co-evolution.
Jun 15, 2027
Extend computational models of virus–TIP competition using experimental observations to identify promising conditions and TIP designs for larger-scale studies.
Meet the Team
Our Yin Lab team includes undergraduates from biology, engineering, computer science, and data science who have taken the initiative to seek out and gain experience seeking solutions to the most pressing problems of societal need. These dedicated early researchers contribute computational modeling, laboratory experimentation, and data analysis while learning hands-on how scientific ideas are developed, tested, refined and ultimately shared with others.
John Yin
I’m driven by the opportunity to explore the dynamic intersection of chemical engineering and biology. My work focuses on understanding how viruses replicate, spread, evolve, and persist. Using molecular and cell biology, mathematical and computational modeling, and quantitative wet-lab experiments, I aim to answer fundamental questions about virus-host interactions and develop innovative strategies to combat viral infections. Links to my peer-reviewed publications can be found on here.
At the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, I lead an interdisciplinary team dedicated to understanding viral behavior and engineering new solutions to manage it. Collaboration is at the heart of our efforts, connecting experts from fields such as biophysics and evolutionary biology, infectious disease, and artificial intelligence (AI). This approach not only drives breakthroughs in virus-host research and therapeutic innovation but also enriches the training of students. By engaging with diverse perspectives and cutting-edge methodologies, students develop critical skills, embrace interdisciplinary thinking, and prepare to tackle complex challenges at the interface of biology and engineering.
Teaching and mentoring future scientists and engineers is the most rewarding aspect of my work. I encourage my students to think creatively, value innovation, and approach their work with strong ethical principles. It’s deeply fulfilling to see them grow into skilled researchers equipped to address real-world problems.
Beyond the lab, I find inspiration in the arts and humanities. Playing piano and cello fuels my creativity and complements my scientific pursuits. I am committed to addressing societal challenges—from preventing pandemics to training the next generation of scientific and technological leaders. Together, through science, collaboration, and creativity, we can shape a healthier and more resilient future.
Project Backers
- 26Backers
- 67%Funded
- $6,642Total Donations
- $246.00Average Donation