Indonesian Journal of Life Sciences Vol. 02 | Number 01 | March (2020) http://journal.i3l.ac.id/ojs/index.php/IJLS/ 29 RESEARCH ARTICLE What do T cells see in SARS-CoV2? Immunoinformatics analysis to identify T cell epitopes from SARS- CoV2 ORF1ab polyprotein Marsia Gustiananda Department of Biomedicine, Indonesia International Institute for Life Sciences, Jakarta, Indonesia Email: marsia.gustiananda@i3l.ac.id ABSTRACT The current epidemic caused by a novel coronavirus SARS-CoV2 as well as two previously documented pandemic caused by SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV imposes that a spillover of an animal coronavirus to humans is a continuous threat. The zoonotic nature of the infection contributes to the unpredictability of the pandemic. In such situations, the availability of the ‘off the shelf’ vaccines that target the conserved region of the coronavirus might help in preventing the spread of the diseases. Therefore, efforts to generate such vaccines should be considered as a priority. The whole genome of SARS-CoV2 is readily available in the public database one month after the first case was identified. The platform technology known as the “genome to vaccine” approach would provide useful start to identify parts of the virus proteome which can be the candidate for vaccine components. This study used an immunoinformatic approach to identify T cell epitopes from SARS- CoV2 ORF1ab polyprotein in an attempt to design a genome-derived epitope-based universal coronavirus vaccine. Keywords: immunoinformatics; ORF1ab; SARS-CoV2; T cell epitopes; epitope-based vaccine INTRODUCTION The outbreak of novel coronavirus SARS- CoV2 which started in Wuhan-China in December 2019 has spread to 85 countries, including Indonesia, and causes in total 95333 confirmed cases and 3282 deaths (WHO situation reports 45). Individuals infected by SARS-CoV2 developed symptoms of a severe acute respiratory syndrome similar to SARS- CoV and MERS-CoV, which include viral pneumonia, fever, difficulty breathing, and in most severe cases the infiltration of the bilateral lung (Huang et al., 2020). SARS-CoV2, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV and several other human coronaviruses, which cause the common cold, belong to the same virus family, known as Coronavirideae. During SARS-CoV epidemy in 2002, 8422 people were reported to be infected and resulted in 916 dead. MERS-CoV epidemy in 2012 caused 1401 infections and 543 death (WHO, 2018; Koh et al., 2010). The periodic emergence of coronaviruses as a spillover from the animal causing global epidemy showed that the virus is a continuous threat to human health and well beings. The zoonotic nature of the viral infection contributes to the unpredictability of the occurrence of coronavirus infections which can only be detected when outbreaks occur. Therefore, efforts to generate vaccines