American immunologist and head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious DiseasesThousands of miles from Dr. Barney Graham’s lab in Bethesda, Maryland, a frightening new coronavirus had jumped from camels to humans in the Middle East, killing 1 out of every 3 people infected. An expert on the world’s most intractable viruses, Graham had been working for months to develop a vaccine but had gotten nowhere.
They remain a marvel: Even as the omicron variant fuels a new wave of the pandemic, the vaccines have proved remarkably resilient at defending against severe illness and death. And the manufacturers, Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna, say that mRNA technology will allow them to adapt the vaccines quickly to fend off whatever dangerous new version of the virus that evolution brings next.
In early 2020, these different strands of research came together. The spike of the COVID virus was encoded in mRNA molecules. Those molecules were wrapped in a protective layer of fat and poured into small glass vials. When the shots went in arms less than a year later, recipients’ cells responded by producing proteins that resembled the spikes — and that trained the body to attack the coronavirus.In December 1996, President Bill Clinton invited Dr.
The Vaccine Research Center opened its doors in 2000 at the National Institutes of Health’s campus in Bethesda. One of the first scientists to be recruited to the new effort was Graham.Vaccines protect people by giving the immune system a preview of an invading microbe so it can prepare a strong defense against the real thing.
In 2008, a 27-year-old named Jason McLellan applied to join a group at the Vaccine Research Center working on just that problem. Within six months at the center, though, McLellan was flummoxed by HIV and wanted to apply its lessons to another pathogen. But the molecule was nearly impossible to isolate from cells because it would fall apart as it was being removed.
It was a fringe idea that few scientists thought would work. A molecule as fragile as mRNA seemed an unlikely vaccine candidate. Karikó and Weissman now knew how to protect mRNA once it was inside a cell. But to work as a vaccine or a medicine, the fragile molecules would need to be shielded in the bloodstream to prevent degradation on their way to cells.
In 2004, MacLachlan’s team made another crucial step forward: He encased the genetic material inside fatty coats in a way that would allow drug companies to increase production and changed the ratios of lipids to keep more of the precious cargo from escaping. The team also worked to ensure that cells did not simply break up the genetic material as soon as it arrived.Wobbly Spikes
Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: STForeignDesk - 🏆 4. / 71 Read more »
Source: YahooSG - 🏆 3. / 71 Read more »
Source: ChannelNewsAsia - 🏆 6. / 66 Read more »
Source: ChannelNewsAsia - 🏆 6. / 66 Read more »
Source: STForeignDesk - 🏆 4. / 71 Read more »