Conventional vaccines usually contain antigens – components of the respective pathogens – that bind to receptors on the surface of their target cells in order to trigger the disease. Scientists at the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH) and the Max Delbrück Center have now discovered that antigen variants with low receptor binding can be advantageous for the development of vaccines. The research team has succeeded in producing a new vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus by identifying spike protein mutants that lack binding affinity. The scientists have now published their findings in the European Journal of Immunology.