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<div class="co">Project Tolera</div>
<div class="tag">Antigen-specific tolerance, one patient at a time.</div>
<div class="sub">A citizen-scientist's roadmap for a personalized pMHC-II tolerance vaccine in eosinophilic esophagitis — from AI/ML design to first-in-patient. One course, not a lifetime of symptom suppression.</div>
<div class="raise"><b>Ruth-Anne Pai, PhD</b> — PhD Scientist &amp; Advisor | Bridging Science and Advocacy · person living with EoE<br/>advising@ruthannepai.com&nbsp;·&nbsp;ruthannepai.com&nbsp;·&nbsp;linkedin.com/in/ruth-anne-pai&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;Developed during the "Built with Claude: Life Sciences Hackathon," July 2026</div>
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<div class="h">The problem</div>
Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is a chronic, food-driven immune disease — <b>~167,500 people in the US</b> and rising. It is fundamentally <b>antigen-specific</b>: a food peptide, presented on an MHC-II molecule, to a pathogenic T-cell clone. Yet <b>every approved and pipeline therapy</b> (dupilumab, cendakimab, budesonide, PPIs) is a broad, chronically-dosed symptom suppressor. None is antigen-specific; none induces durable tolerance. Patients face a lifetime of injections, steroids, or restrictive diets.
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<div class="h">The solution</div>
From one biopsy + blood draw, the workflow identifies the patient's HLA type and causal food-reactive clone and manufactures an N-of-1 vaccine that <b>re-educates only that clone</b> — Signal-1 anergy + multivalent nanoparticle Tr1/IL-10 induction. The individualized-neoantigen-vaccine model of oncology, applied to food antigens: <b>one course, not lifelong dosing.</b>
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<div class="h">Platform — PACT™</div>
A shared, GPU-validated MHC-II backbone with a <b>swappable peptide cassette</b> — only the peptide changes per patient, so N-of-1 manufacturing is tractable (vein-to-vaccine target 6–10 weeks). The same engine extends to celiac and other food/auto-antigen disease.
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<div class="h">Validation</div>
A 9-construct dairy/wheat/soy panel folds at <b>ipTM 0.87–0.90, 15/15 peptides in-groove</b>. The dairy anchor (β-casein aa59–78, HLA-DRB1*07:01) is supported by a reported tetramer-validated epitope.* Wheat/soy are computational priors; wet-lab validation is a near-term milestone.
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<div class="h">Market &amp; differentiation</div>
~<b>$2.2B/yr</b> US TAM (biologic-eligible). Base-case ~$1.0B mature revenue at a ~$150k one-course price — <b>~23% below</b> Tzield's actual $194k/course. Project Tolera is the <b>only antigen-specific, one-course</b> entrant; every competitor is broad-mechanism and chronic. A companion diagnostic adds an earlier, independent revenue line.
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<div class="h">Why now &amp; the comp</div>
Tzield (2022) proved the FDA will approve a disease-modifying immune therapy; neoantigen vaccines proved per-patient biologics clear CMC. Tzield — a first-in-class tolerance asset — drew a <b>$2.9B Sanofi acquisition</b> on a single indication.
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<b>What it would take</b> — roughly <b>$8M</b> would carry the concept from validated in-silico design through human functional validation, murine PoC, GLP tox, GMP/IND lots, the companion diagnostic, and regulatory filings to a <b>cleared IND and first-in-human dosing</b>, the single largest de-risking step available today. A further ~$35M would reach the Phase 2 durable-remission proof-of-concept. <b>If this roadmap is useful to you — as a researcher, clinician, advocate, or funder — reach out.</b>
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<b>Contact:</b> Ruth-Anne Pai, PhD&nbsp;·&nbsp;advising@ruthannepai.com&nbsp;·&nbsp;ruthannepai.com&nbsp;·&nbsp;linkedin.com/in/ruth-anne-pai&nbsp;&nbsp;·&nbsp;&nbsp;Project Tolera — an independent hackathon research roadmap<br/>
<span class="disc">Not a company prospectus or an offer to invest. Preclinical-stage concept. Financial and market figures are illustrative planning assumptions, not guidance. *Literature attribution carried from founding brief, flagged for independent verification. Non-dairy epitopes are computational priors pending validation. Not medical advice.</span>
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