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> They identified the sequence for the spike protein, plugged that into their vaccine platform, and voila – an mRNA vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Moder
by aazaa 6y ago
> They identified the sequence for the spike protein, plugged that into their vaccine platform, and voila – an mRNA vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Moderna zeroed in on the spike protein thanks th large amount of previous research on SARS-CoV-1. Vaccines effective in animal models of SARS were developed based on this approach starting around 2004:
https://www.pnas.org/content/101/17/6641 https://www.pnas.org/content/101/17/6641
The article continues:
> The win-win here, however, is that the more we develop a universal vaccine platform, the more we can have the best of both worlds – fast plus safe and effective. But this also means we need public buy in, which requires reassuring the public about the process and the strategy. It also means reassuring the public that the process has not been politicized, and that objective experts are driving (something the TA did poorly).
The MRNA approach requires an understanding of viral vulnerabilities and a lot of animal studies prior to the synthesis of a vaccine candidate. Again, that seemingly fruitless work with SARS more than a decade ago was the key to the success of Moderna and Pfizer today.
It's a lesson that should not be forgotten but probably will.
The other thing to keep in mind is that the Pfizer and Moderna approvals represent the first ever large-scale use of MRNA vaccines in humans. That substantially lowers the barrier to entry of new vaccines based on the same platform.
- sp332 6y agoI understand why they went for the spike protein first, but now maybe they could try for something more generic, against all coronaviruses?
- aazaa 6y agoThat would require the kind of understanding of viral vulnerabilities I'm thinking of. The same applies to any virus, of course. To my knowledge, that kind of understand does not exist because coronaviruses have been largely ignored historically, with the exception of SARS and MERS. And we've been trying for decades to get a broad-spectrum or even single-dose-forever vaccine for the flu, so far without much to show for it.
- IfOnlyYouKnew 6y agoThe idea that while it may have taken only a few days, it still wasn't "easy" is probably best demonstrated by the Pfizer/BioNTech joint venture: Pfizer has tens of thousands of biologist of any stripe working for them, but they chose to partner with a comparatively tiny startup that had the expertise to design the vaccine.
- Slartie 6y agoActually the partnership came together the other way round: the "comparatively tiny startup" saw articles about SARS-CoV-2, decided to start sketching out a vaccine, called Pfizer, which they had prior business relations due to joint work on previous projects, asked whether they'd be interested in jointly develop this new vaccine, and Pfizer's head of vaccine research said "yeah, sure!" immediately.