Epitope focusing by variable effective antigen surface concentration

A computing device comprising a processor;

• and data storage, storing instructions that, upon execution by the processor, cause the computing device to perform functions comprising:
• a. obtaining a target antigen protein sequence and one or more antigen homolog sequences;
• b. obtaining structural models of the target antigen protein sequence and the one or more antigen homolog sequences and identifying a plurality of surface-exposed amino acid residues;
• c. generating, in silico, a library of a plurality of antigen variants using the structural models, wherein such generation comprises:
• i. diversifying non-target epitope surface exposed amino acid residues for each antigen variant based on the structural models;
• ii. performing comparisons between each of a plurality of non-target epitope surface exposed regions comprising a commonly defined area between antigen variants of the library,
• wherein antigen variants of the library share at least 30% sequence identity in non surface exposed amino acid residues, and wherein antigen variants of the library share at most 90% sequence identity in non target epitope surface exposed amino acid residues;
• and
• d. selecting six or more antigen variants generated in (c).