7 ms·

To develop a coronavirus vaccine, synthetic biologists try to outdo nature

89 points by sethbannon 7y ago

dsign 7y ago
.. the photo in the article is worth a million dollars ...
- bryanrasmussen 7y ago
  a reporter once asked me to write a bunch of programming buzzwords on a whiteboard for part of a transmission, you sure this isn't the bioversion of that?
  - ksk 7y ago
    Its a screen displaying a protein. One approach to the vaccine is by looking at it as a protein folding problem. They're trying to find a protein that can bind to the 'spike' of the corona-virus and prevent it from attaching to our cells.
    - l33tman 7y ago
      To be pedantic, that would not be a vaccine, that would be an anti-viral drug. What they were doing here is expressing parts of the actual corona virus antigens on a "baseplate" that could contain many copies of it, in the hope that the human immune system would catch up on it if presented to the body and the resulting antibodies would possibly be effective against the coronavirus. Regarding antiviral drugs for this, the corona-virus entry mechanism was elucidated and candidate inhibitors for this were located in previous articles during the last week ( https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)30229-4 https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)30229-4 )
      - ksk 7y ago
        Yeah, I should have known better than to say that given that I work in the vaccine field, but not as a scientist. I guess I deserved that :P
  - wyldfire 7y ago
    There are two photos in the article. `dsign` refers to the one with President Trump, not the laptop displaying the protein. Caption is "President Trump is shown a vaccine model during a tour of the National Institutes of Health’s Vaccine Research Center in Bethesda, Md., on March 3. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES"
    - bryanrasmussen 7y ago
      fair enough, but why would that be worth a million? Even using the phrase in a jocular fashion - it's not that interesting of a photo. Being pedantic if I look at his photos on Getty Images and choose something about the same quality (I didn't find the exact image) and selecting for both web and print newspaper editorial front page I'm thinking about $4000 Is it actually a million on Getty Images? Or is it worth a million as in the common vernacular usage because it is amusing or has some worthwhile quality I cannot discern?
      - wyldfire 7y ago
        > amusing or has some worthwhile quality I cannot discern The President's concerned/confused/concentrating look is definitely amusing, especially given his previous skepticism/criticism of vaccines. But among the punchlines his presidency has given us, this photo is merely a chortle.
        bryanrasmussen 7y ago
        I feel the same, hence my confusion and deciding it can't be that photo that¨s worth the money. must be the other one.
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    It seems so. It's fold.it. It's a bit more relevant than the movie equivalent of webpage sources on the screen, but a vaccine it isn't.
- rsynnott 7y ago
  It's certainly very caption-able. From the expression on her face, I get the impression he's just asked if it's 1:1 scale, or something.
- gilleain 7y ago
  On the laptop is a screenshot from fold.it ... of a sheet wrapped round a helix. Not sure what structure it is.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  Isn't that thing on the screen just fold.it? EDIT: pretty sure it is. https://fold.it/portal/files/newcompetition.png https://fold.it/portal/files/newcompetition.png
ngcc_hk 7y ago
If one wonder whether the WuHan Virus are created due to test against SARS, one may wonder what these synthetic one will do. Any control. Or just another epicentre of another Coronavirus-20a, b, c ... Putting Trump does not add authority, btw.
- justicezyx 7y ago
  Please be mindful about the use of name for the covid-19. Use of Wuhan in name is not accurate, and deliberately implies a link to specific area and people, which is countereffective.
  - gnulinux 7y ago
    The virus itself is called SARS-2-CoV, the disease it possibly causes is called COVID-19.
  - ta8699247 7y ago
    The spread of the virus to humans is the direct result of Wuhan ‘wet markets’ and the terrible policies of China’s communist regime. To suggest otherwise is at best objectively wrong and at worst conscious whitewashing of the truth.
  - allovernow 7y ago
    The virus originated in Wuhan. This is no more inappropriate than calling the 1918 pandemic the "Spanish Flu". Ironically more so because the Spanish flu is thought to be a misnomer because Spain was simply the first place to report the flu in the news. >deliberately implies a link to specific area and people, which is countereffective No, what's counter-effective right now is social policing according to bleeding heart policies. Now is not the time to clutch at pearls and treat everyone "equally." Example: weeks ago Chinese Nationality and especially travel from Wuhan was a statistically strong prior for virus contact, and therefore the "xenophobic" travel bans were justified. Sometimes natural disasters are politically incorrect. Your response must match else you risk putting other people at risk in the name of prudeness.
    - 7y ago
zzzeek 7y ago
hi I'm an idiot who knows nothing. can someone please explain the disconnect between this sentence: > “It’s all of us against the bug,” said Neil King of the University of Washington, who has been part of the hunt for a coronavirus vaccine since 2017. noting the "since 2017" part. and this: > The World Health Organisation said this week it may be 18 months before a vaccine against the coronavirus is publicly available. https://www.sciencealert.com/who-says-a-coronavirus-vaccine-is-18-months-away https://www.sciencealert.com/who-says-a-coronavirus-vaccine-... The former sentence seems to suggest there is as yet no path towards a vaccine for this particular virus in that researchers have been trying without success for three years, or is this having to do with the distinction between an immediate vaccine vs. one that is more generalized?
- wetpaws 7y ago
  Vaccine development usually take years even in the best cases.
  - londons_explore 7y ago
    Current processes for vaccine development take years. If you're happy to have a significant chance of infecting the target with the thing you're trying to protect them from, you can make one in an afternoon with 18th century tech. Considering that a major disease outbreak could kill millions, I think we should reconsider this approach. Thousands of people might die to perfect the vaccine making process, but thats better than millions dying from the disease.
    - ksk 7y ago
      Have you ever worked on a vaccine?
  - tim333 7y ago
    The Chinese are trying to speed things "China: Coronavirus Vaccine Could Be Ready for 'Emergency Use' in April" https://www.voanews.com/science-health/coronavirus-outbreak/china-coronavirus-vaccine-could-be-ready-emergency-use-april https://www.voanews.com/science-health/coronavirus-outbreak/...
jaequery 7y ago
What happens if the virus mutates during the development of the cure? Isn't that the real nature of viruses and the reason why we can't really cure the common cold/flu?
- rsynnott 7y ago
  Annual vaccine!
- l33tman 7y ago
  Coronaviruses have historically been quite stable (not an expert on this but I read this recently). More stable than the Influenza viruses at least. So we can only hope..
- ksk 7y ago
  The virus can mutate and the vaccine will still work if the mutation doesn't cause a change to the epitope. (caveat other technical issues)
magwa101 7y ago
Cold showers help the human body fight germs. Why not? There is zero downside.
econcon 7y ago
The new trick is that they are able to discover the structure of molecule they need through computer simulations modeling immune system/virus. Basically it uses Recombinant DNA technology to mass produce this. It's already being used to produce growth hormone of various kids for use in humans, swines and bovines. Difference here is that tho, in growth hormone we know the structure of peptide already as it can be extracted from the pituitary of the cadaver
magwa101 7y ago
I'll change that: Cold showers prime and help the human immune system. There is no downside to doing it.
ngneer 7y ago
Coming at it from a different and lay angle, could a cure be devised that would be even more contageous, spreading around fast and eliminating the virus?
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

89 points by sethbannon 7y ago

dsign 7y ago

.. the photo in the article is worth a million dollars ...

bryanrasmussen 7y ago
a reporter once asked me to write a bunch of programming buzzwords on a whiteboard for part of a transmission, you sure this isn't the bioversion of that?
- ksk 7y ago
  Its a screen displaying a protein. One approach to the vaccine is by looking at it as a protein folding problem. They're trying to find a protein that can bind to the 'spike' of the corona-virus and prevent it from attaching to our cells.
  - l33tman 7y ago
    To be pedantic, that would not be a vaccine, that would be an anti-viral drug. What they were doing here is expressing parts of the actual corona virus antigens on a "baseplate" that could contain many copies of it, in the hope that the human immune system would catch up on it if presented to the body and the resulting antibodies would possibly be effective against the coronavirus. Regarding antiviral drugs for this, the corona-virus entry mechanism was elucidated and candidate inhibitors for this were located in previous articles during the last week ( https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)30229-4 https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)30229-4 )
    - ksk 7y ago
      Yeah, I should have known better than to say that given that I work in the vaccine field, but not as a scientist. I guess I deserved that :P
- wyldfire 7y ago
  There are two photos in the article. `dsign` refers to the one with President Trump, not the laptop displaying the protein. Caption is "President Trump is shown a vaccine model during a tour of the National Institutes of Health’s Vaccine Research Center in Bethesda, Md., on March 3. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES"
  - bryanrasmussen 7y ago
    fair enough, but why would that be worth a million? Even using the phrase in a jocular fashion - it's not that interesting of a photo. Being pedantic if I look at his photos on Getty Images and choose something about the same quality (I didn't find the exact image) and selecting for both web and print newspaper editorial front page I'm thinking about $4000 Is it actually a million on Getty Images? Or is it worth a million as in the common vernacular usage because it is amusing or has some worthwhile quality I cannot discern?
    - wyldfire 7y ago
      > amusing or has some worthwhile quality I cannot discern The President's concerned/confused/concentrating look is definitely amusing, especially given his previous skepticism/criticism of vaccines. But among the punchlines his presidency has given us, this photo is merely a chortle.
      - bryanrasmussen 7y ago
        I feel the same, hence my confusion and deciding it can't be that photo that¨s worth the money. must be the other one.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  It seems so. It's fold.it. It's a bit more relevant than the movie equivalent of webpage sources on the screen, but a vaccine it isn't.
rsynnott 7y ago
It's certainly very caption-able. From the expression on her face, I get the impression he's just asked if it's 1:1 scale, or something.
gilleain 7y ago
On the laptop is a screenshot from fold.it ... of a sheet wrapped round a helix. Not sure what structure it is.
TeMPOraL 7y ago
Isn't that thing on the screen just fold.it? EDIT: pretty sure it is. https://fold.it/portal/files/newcompetition.png https://fold.it/portal/files/newcompetition.png

ngcc_hk 7y ago

If one wonder whether the WuHan Virus are created due to test against SARS, one may wonder what these synthetic one will do. Any control. Or just another epicentre of another Coronavirus-20a, b, c ... Putting Trump does not add authority, btw.

justicezyx 7y ago
Please be mindful about the use of name for the covid-19. Use of Wuhan in name is not accurate, and deliberately implies a link to specific area and people, which is countereffective.
- gnulinux 7y ago
  The virus itself is called SARS-2-CoV, the disease it possibly causes is called COVID-19.
- ta8699247 7y ago
  The spread of the virus to humans is the direct result of Wuhan ‘wet markets’ and the terrible policies of China’s communist regime. To suggest otherwise is at best objectively wrong and at worst conscious whitewashing of the truth.
- allovernow 7y ago
  The virus originated in Wuhan. This is no more inappropriate than calling the 1918 pandemic the "Spanish Flu". Ironically more so because the Spanish flu is thought to be a misnomer because Spain was simply the first place to report the flu in the news. >deliberately implies a link to specific area and people, which is countereffective No, what's counter-effective right now is social policing according to bleeding heart policies. Now is not the time to clutch at pearls and treat everyone "equally." Example: weeks ago Chinese Nationality and especially travel from Wuhan was a statistically strong prior for virus contact, and therefore the "xenophobic" travel bans were justified. Sometimes natural disasters are politically incorrect. Your response must match else you risk putting other people at risk in the name of prudeness.
  - 7y ago

zzzeek 7y ago

hi I'm an idiot who knows nothing. can someone please explain the disconnect between this sentence: > “It’s all of us against the bug,” said Neil King of the University of Washington, who has been part of the hunt for a coronavirus vaccine since 2017. noting the "since 2017" part. and this: > The World Health Organisation said this week it may be 18 months before a vaccine against the coronavirus is publicly available. https://www.sciencealert.com/who-says-a-coronavirus-vaccine-is-18-months-away https://www.sciencealert.com/who-says-a-coronavirus-vaccine-... The former sentence seems to suggest there is as yet no path towards a vaccine for this particular virus in that researchers have been trying without success for three years, or is this having to do with the distinction between an immediate vaccine vs. one that is more generalized?

wetpaws 7y ago
Vaccine development usually take years even in the best cases.
- londons_explore 7y ago
  Current processes for vaccine development take years. If you're happy to have a significant chance of infecting the target with the thing you're trying to protect them from, you can make one in an afternoon with 18th century tech. Considering that a major disease outbreak could kill millions, I think we should reconsider this approach. Thousands of people might die to perfect the vaccine making process, but thats better than millions dying from the disease.
  - ksk 7y ago
    Have you ever worked on a vaccine?
- tim333 7y ago
  The Chinese are trying to speed things "China: Coronavirus Vaccine Could Be Ready for 'Emergency Use' in April" https://www.voanews.com/science-health/coronavirus-outbreak/china-coronavirus-vaccine-could-be-ready-emergency-use-april https://www.voanews.com/science-health/coronavirus-outbreak/...

jaequery 7y ago

What happens if the virus mutates during the development of the cure? Isn't that the real nature of viruses and the reason why we can't really cure the common cold/flu?

rsynnott 7y ago
Annual vaccine!
l33tman 7y ago
Coronaviruses have historically been quite stable (not an expert on this but I read this recently). More stable than the Influenza viruses at least. So we can only hope..
ksk 7y ago
The virus can mutate and the vaccine will still work if the mutation doesn't cause a change to the epitope. (caveat other technical issues)

magwa101 7y ago

Cold showers help the human body fight germs. Why not? There is zero downside.

econcon 7y ago

The new trick is that they are able to discover the structure of molecule they need through computer simulations modeling immune system/virus. Basically it uses Recombinant DNA technology to mass produce this. It's already being used to produce growth hormone of various kids for use in humans, swines and bovines. Difference here is that tho, in growth hormone we know the structure of peptide already as it can be extracted from the pituitary of the cadaver

magwa101 7y ago

I'll change that: Cold showers prime and help the human immune system. There is no downside to doing it.

ngneer 7y ago

Coming at it from a different and lay angle, could a cure be devised that would be even more contageous, spreading around fast and eliminating the virus?

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]