A comprehensive vaccine for Ebola versus multiple filoviruses, according to Bukreyev, a human virologist in Hamilton, Montana
It was an achievement that the first vaccine against Covid-19 was developed in 2020. That success was built on iterative progress over decades, driven by the independent contributions of scientists around the world.
“Public health in Africa would benefit from further options,” says Heinz Feldmann, head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Laboratory of Virology in Hamilton, Montana, whose research contributed to the development of the existing Ebola vaccines.
It would be ideal to have a vaccine that confers protection against multiple filoviruses — the family that includes Ebola virus and other pathogens that cause haemorrhagic diseases, such as Marburg virus — rather than having many separate vaccines, says Alex Bukreyev, a virologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. This would make vaccine distribution easier in poor and rural areas, because costly new vaccination campaigns wouldn’t be needed with every outbreak of a different Ebola species.
Both current Zaire ebolavirus vaccines use technology that relies on another active virus, which limits who can receive them. Ervebo can be very unpleasant if used in people over the age of 18. Johnson & Johnson’s regimen can be offered to people one year old and up, but it must be given in two doses, eight weeks apart, which is not ideal in a rapidly growing outbreak, Bukreyev says.
Bukreyev, who worked with Moderna on the study, says that if the deal goes through, it will probably take about three years of research in non-human primates to find out whether the vaccine is effective in the animals, and then human clinical trials will be needed.
Climate change and cosmology: what do we really need to know about the future? A briefing on climate change, the world’s most massive economy and science in politics
The global economy lost between $5 trillion and $29 trillion from 1992 to 2013, as a result of human-driven global warming. It was the worst effect in low-income countries, with a reduction in national income of 6.7%. High-income countries experienced a 1.5% average decrease.
I’ll be at COP27 in Egypt as part of the Nature News team covering the event. We want to hear about your views on climate change, the summit and science in politics. Your comments might feature in future stories or help us to shape our coverage. I need to contact you at briefings@nature.com
The leaders of the world agree that it is time to stop using GDP as a measure of prosperity. Instead, we could complement it with a dashboard of indicators on the economy, health, ecosystems, climate and more. In the 70 years since nations began using GDP, the biggest shift in how economies are measured has been this one. The UN secretary-general wrote that GDP rises when there is overfishing, cutting of forests or burning fossil fuels. “We are destroying nature, but we count it as an increase in wealth.”
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03661-0
The Weissman-Karikó Dynasty: A Case Study in the Evolution of Thomas Henry Huxley and the Human Immune Response to RNA
The United States has long been a top destination for international early-career researchers to do their PhD or other postgraduate training, but numbers have dropped over time. Researchers who spoke to Nature cited concerns over visas, affordability, health care, racism and gun violence as reasons why they’ve chosen not to pursue positions in the United States.
Historian Alison Bashford’s multigenerational biography of the Huxley family illuminates a dynasty’s vexed influence on science and society. The central figures in this study are Thomas Henry Huxley, an early promoter of Darwin and the evolutionary theorist who codified modern evolution in 1942, and his grandson, Julian Huxley. Bashford suggested that they could be thought of as one very long-lived man because of their similarities.
Weissman, 63, grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts, before attending Brandeis University, and then receiving both a doctorate and a medical degree from Boston University. He spent the better part of the 90s in the laboratory of Dr. Anthony Fauci at the New Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease, where he was researching the role of dendritic cells in starting the immune response. He was already thinking about how to bolster the human immune system when he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997.
Coincidentally, it stepped in. Weissman bumped into Karikó, a biochemist at the university, while waiting at the Xerox machine for articles to be photocopied. They began talking about their shared research interest. The potential of messenger RNA as a human therapeutic was thought to be because it was research done by a native of Hungary.
Their research, however, was an uphill battle. For years, Weissman and Karikó’s experiments with RNA ended in failure. The problem was that the immune response to theRNA made their lab mice sick. The pair had a breakthrough in 2005 with the lack of support from the scientific community. The immune system would fail to recognize a foreign invader if it was subverted by modifying theRNA. With this modified RNA, the mice no longer got sick and showed the immunity Weissman and Karikó had hoped for.
Millions of lives have been saved since then by the vaccines. The threat of Covid-19 is still a threat, but Americans have been able to return to a normal life.
The easing of China’s policy may be heralded as a victory, but it’s one that could come with a steep cost. As of late November, 90% of China’s population had completed two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, while only about 66% of people over 80 had received two doses, according to Chinese officials. The vaccines for Chinese citizens are pale in comparison to the vaccines approved in the US, according to Weissman.
RNA as a Tool for the Development of Vaccines and Gene Edit for Diseases: A Discussion with Dr. W. Weissman
Weissman: In an mRNA vaccine, the mRNA acts as a kind of middleman. The codes for the proteins used in our body are contained in our genes. The messenger RNA makes a copy of one of those codes and brings it to a machine called a ribosome that reads the mRNA code and produces a protein from it.
I also thought that in addition to vaccines, we might be able to deliver therapeutic proteins and gene edit with RNA. The drawbacks needed to be figured out because we felt there was so much potential. We were with it for so long because of that.
I’m also speaking with institutions that treat genetic diseases that afflict only 200 people. Only a few academics are interested in researching the small population affected by it. But there is potential for RNA to be the key to treatment of these diseases because instead of having to reinvent the gene therapy for each disease, we can use the RNA platform we’ve already developed and easily plug in different diseases. We don’t have to spend $100 million in research to make a new treatment.
We need to develop the infrastructure to make new drugs and vaccines for the world. I help countries in low and middle-income countries develop new drugs that can cure diseases. Take Thailand. Through support from its government and charitable donations, Thailand was able to fund the development of an mRNA vaccine, which is currently in clinical trials, and could be distributed through Southeast Asia.
The new institute at the University of Pennsylvania does all kinds of research. Muscular diseases are caused by incorrecttranscription of ourRNA. So, we’re looking at new therapies to correct that splicing problem, which use different types of RNA.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/12/opinions/drew-weissman-rna-therapeutics-vaccines-goldynia/index.html
Science Is Not The enemy: Observing the Cosmos Through the Lens of James Webb and Xinjiang Space Telescopes
But there are a lot of ways to address that problem. Scientists are not speaking out enough about science. There are large groups of people who think scientists are all frauds and who don’t believe in science, and they’re being cultured by some of our far right-wing politicians, religious leaders and community leaders. We need to tell those leaders to stop making that unwarranted fear. They should be told that science is not the enemy.
Others are investigating the possibility of delivering COVID-19 vaccines using fast-acting nasal sprays. The road to human trials could take a long time, despite the effectiveness of these sprays.
The first images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) left the world in awe. Some of the JWST’s findings on the early universe were published this year, and astronomers will continue to share the telescope’s results and discoveries on the evolution of galaxies in the year ahead.
The Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile is due to start taking images in July 2023. The southern sky will be scanned in just three nights with the telescope, which has a special three mirror design and a camera containing more than 3 billion pixels of solid state detectors. And the world’s largest steerable telescope — the Xinjiang Qitai Radio Telescope (QTT) in Xinjiang, China — will be switched on. The QTT’s fully steerable dish, spanning 110 metres, will enable it to observe 75% of the stars in the sky at any given time.
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04444-3
The Chandrayaan, Starship and HAKUTO Missions: A Next-Generation Mission to Mars to Study the Environment on the Planet and its Moons
The updated list of priority pathogens is expected from the World Health Organization. 300 scientists will review evidence from more than 25 families of viral andbacterial pathogens to identify which could potentially cause future outbreaks. Specific research and development plans for each priority pathogen will help guide the development of vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests.
The three other missions that were launched in December are: the United Arab Emirate’s Rashid rover, the NASA lunar flashlight and the Japanese HAKUTO-R Mission 1. Chandrayaan (3), the third moon-exploring mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation, will land near the south pole in mid-2023. Next year will also see the first civilian trip to the Moon, with 11 people embarking on a 6-day private spaceflight aboard the SpaceX rocket Starship.
The mission will study the environment on the giant gas planet and three of its moons.
It’s possible that the first approval of a method for editing genes will come next year after promising results from clinical trials. The exagamglogene autotemcel is being developed by two Massachusetts companies, both of which are based in Boston. It uses stem cells from a person to edit a faulty gene and bring the cells back into the person. Vertex is expected to apply to the US Food and Drug Administration in March for approval to make exa-cel available to people with beta thalassaemia or sickle cell disease.
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04444-3
Particle physicists and the climate justice programme: first results of the muon g-2 experiment and future plans for the European Spallation Source
The Climate Change Conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, last month marked an important step toward climate justice after an agreement on a loss and damage fund. Under the agreement, wealthy countries that have historically been responsible for high emissions will financially compensate poorer nations, which have borne the brunt of climate change. The details need to be worked out. The funds will be presented to delegates from around the world during a UN conference in November, and will be recommended by a transition committee before the end of March.
Physicists unveiled the first results of the muon g–2 experiment in April this year, and are expected to publish more precise results in 2023. The experiment shows how muons behave in the magnetic field, and compares it to the standard model of particle physics.
The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory in southern China will also begin searching for physics beyond the standard model, using a detector kept 700 metres underground to precisely measure the oscillation of neutrinos — electrically neutral subatomic particles.
Another highly anticipated event for particle physicists is the opening of the European Spallation Source (ESS) near Lund, Sweden. The pan-European project will use the most powerful linear proton accelerator yet to study the structure of materials. The first researchers will come to the ESS next year.
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04444-3
The first nuclear storage facility in the world: The risk of survival for early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, Covid lockdowns and vaccines
In early January, US regulators will announce whether a drug that slowed down the rate of cognitive decline in a robust clinical trial1 can become available to people with Alzheimer’s disease. Developed by the pharmaceutical company Eisai and the biotechnology firm Biogen, lecanemab is a monoclonal antibody that clears amyloid-β protein that builds up in the brain. The clinical trial included 1,795 people with early-stage Alzheimer’s and showed that lecanemab slowed mental decline by 27% compared with a placebo. However, some scientists think this is only a modest benefit and others are concerned about the safety of the drug.
The first nuclear-waste storage facility in the world will be located off the southwest coast of Finland. The Finnish government approved construction of the deep-underground repository in 2015, to safely dispose of spent nuclear fuel. Up to 6,500 tonnes of radioactive uranium will be packed in copper canisters, which will be covered with clay and buried inside tunnels of granite bedrock 400 metres underground. The nuclear material will remain sealed off there for several hundred thousand years — by which time the radiation levels will be harmless.
2020 was the year of Covid lockdowns, 2021, the year of vaccines and the year of worldwide reopening. 2023 will be the year of variant prediction. The first Covid variants of concern that were identified—from Alpha in the UK to Beta in South Africa—muddied the picture of where the pandemic would go next. Alpha was better at transmission and able to evade immunity. What would the pattern of evolution look like in the long run?
If this evolutionary trajectory continues, we’ll see this cyclic pattern in 2023 and beyond. It is a similar dynamic to the seasonal coronaviruses that have been causing epidemics for decades. A 2021 study by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center found that coronaviruses gradually evolve over time, so prior immunity is less effective.
This prediction challenge will be a regular occurrence at Covid in the years to come. Some countries have already approved shots that are adapted for the Omicron BA.1 subvariant. But how well will these new vaccines match the variants that circulate further down the line? Decisions for winter 2023–24 in the northern hemisphere will likely have to be made in early 2023. Getting the choice right could have major implications for the size and severity of future Covid waves. For the H3N2 influenza subtype, which tends to cause the largest seasonal epidemics, challenges around vaccine selection and manufacturing mean effectiveness against symptomatic disease is typically less than 50 percent.
It is possible for progress on a vaccine to be made that will be effective against a wide range of different coronaviruses. But the history of development for other universal vaccines, such as for influenza, suggests outright success is far from guaranteed. A long game of cat-and-mouse will begin in the coming year, pitting vaccine updates against an evolving virus. Solving this prediction question—and rolling out the resulting vaccines—will be one of the major health challenges of 2023.
The convergence of medical advances—from next-generation sequencing to technologies to characterize immune responses on large data sets—boosts our ability to discover ideal vaccine targets. Science has also made progress in understanding how malaria and tuberculosis pathogens hide and evade the immune system, providing insights into how to combat them.
They are from researchers all over the world who want to get rid of a disease, and they all want to do it with the help of Afrigen.
What is the work that looks like? A row of small warehouse-like structures is the scene of a lot of activity at Afrigen’s Cape Town facility.
Contractor Jaco Neethling says this job feels personal. South Africans were upset that they had to wait months for COVID vaccines after wealthy countries got them.
He is aware that the African continent makes just 1% of the vaccines it uses. “So it’s nice to know that we can actually move forward. He says we can become independent. We’ve all bought into the dream.
They found out right off the bat that the liquid into which they’ve dissolved the vaccine has particles in it.
Weber gets on the computer to see if it’s possible to buy a microscopic filter that could strain out the particles. One option looks very good.
Vaccines for the Poor: The Role of Trademarks in Moderna’s Expansion and its Impact on the Violation of Human Rights
There are questions as to if Moderna will allow those same patented elements to be used for the vaccine against other diseases. Terblanche gives a little shrug. “So the short answer is, I don’t know which way Moderna’s going to go,” she says.
Still, says Terblanche, there are almost certainly some patents out there that “complicate our lives.” She says we may have to challenge some of the claims.
Still, to ensure the company is sustainable, she does need some profit. There is a limit on how much it can make from any vaccine that is sold in low- and middle-income countries. In order to develop vaccines for diseases that affect wealthy countries, Terblanche is looking for partners.
Another video conference. She grabs a sheaf of papers – and another essential: “Warpaint!” It’s what she calls her lipstick. Tomato red.
Three-Dimensional Predictions for Vaccination: The Case of Anti-Baryon Consumption in the Health Care Industry
The future of the health care industry is expected to be shaped by several key events in the years ahead, and we anticipate that they will contribute to shaping a healthier future. Now is the time to drive that change.
Computational structure prediction is giving rise to the modeling of three-dimensional structures. This helps us figure out where the best places to find vaccines are in the proteins.