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Vaccine Development II: Strategies

In the first part of this series on vaccine development, I went over how our immune system responds to pathogens like viruses or bacteria. Briefly, when our body encounters a novel pathogen, specialized cells from our immune system create antibodies that bind to specific molecular signatures called antigens found on that pathogen. The blueprints for effective antibodies are retained as memory so that we can quickly produce large quantities of those antibodies when needed.  To develop a vaccine that can protect us from a particular pathogen, hence, we need to somehow elicit these responses without getting sick from that disease. In this essay, I will describe how researchers try to achieve that.1 Let’s come up with some strategies with the information we already have from the first part of this essay. Assuming the antigens are present, can’t we use dead pathogens to elicit the same immune response? Indeed, in the 19th century, scientists discovered that inactivated or killed micro...
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Vaccine Development I: Overview of the Immune System

When we read about deadly infectious diseases, we often feel life is unfair. After all, why can’t our body fight of the invading microorganisms and keep us safe? In reality, however, our body possesses amazing defense capabilities: our immune system routinely protects us from a vast army of pathogens—the organisms that can cause diseases. While our immune system excels at eliminating a previously-encountered pathogen, it also tries its best when it does encounter a novel pathogen. In this essay, I will provide a brief overview of how our immune system works and how it relates to vaccine development.1  Elimination of pathogens (Courtesy:  https://www.britannica.com/ ) Our immune system can be broadly classified into two systems: the innate/general resistance system and the adaptive system. The innate system may be able to eliminate a pathogen on its own or it can stimulate the adaptive immune system to become involved in eliminating the pathogen.  Let’s see how the innate/...
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No, no zombies were created!

I don't get zombies. I mean I understand that they are undead and that they have a weird obsession with human flesh, but I don’t get the science behind their existence. Even to walk like a sleepwalker—that is the zombie walk—for example, you’d need a lot of coordination from your brain. And then there is their sense of sight and perhaps even smell that enables them to detect humans. That would also mean that a significant part of their brain is actually alive. How can they be dead then? And how come they crave human flesh? Do they feel satisfied once they have consumed enough human flesh? How could they tell whether or not someone is faking to be a zombie? Given all these problems I have with zombies, imagine my surprise when I saw a  headline  that claimed scientists have created zombie pigs because of a recent  paper  that was published in Nature magazine. The reality is far from the headline, and here, I want to go over that paper to explain why. Courtesy: Ger...
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