A man receives a COVID-19 vacine during a vaccination drive in Bangkok, Thailand, on March 17, 2021.
First, however, clinical trials must establish that NDV-HXP-S actually works in people. The first phase of clinical trials will conclude in July, and the final phase will take several months more. But experiments with vaccinated animals have raised hopes for the vaccine’s prospects. This insight emerged long before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2015, another coronavirus appeared, causing a deadly form of pneumonia called Middle East respiratory syndrome. Jason McLellan, a structural biologist then at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, and his colleagues set out to make a vaccine against it.
The resulting spike — called 2P, for the two new proline molecules it contained — was far more likely to assume the desired tulip shape. The researchers injected the 2P spikes into mice and found that the animals could easily fight off infections of the MERS coronavirus. Other vaccine-makers are using it as well. Novavax has had strong results with the 2P spike in clinical trials and is expected to apply to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization in the next few weeks. Sanofi is also testing a 2P spike vaccine and expects to finish clinical trials later this year.McLellan’s ability to find lifesaving clues in the structure of proteins has earned him deep admiration in the vaccine world.
In March, he joined forces with two fellow University of Texas biologists, Ilya Finkelstein and Jennifer Maynard. Their three labs created 100 new spikes, each with an altered building block. With funding from the Gates Foundation, they tested each one and then combined the promising changes in new spikes. Eventually, they created a single protein that met their aspirations.
Meanwhile, Innis and his colleagues at PATH were looking for a way to increase the production of COVID-19 vaccines. They wanted a vaccine that less wealthy nations could make on their own.The first wave of authorized COVID-19 vaccines require specialized, costly ingredients to make. Moderna’s RNA-based vaccine, for instance, needs genetic building blocks called nucleotides, as well as a custom-made fatty acid to build a bubble around them.
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