Sat, 10/31/2020 - 22:48
Lexi Walls, whom we met in a recent Lab Update video, has a paper out in Cell today about a covid-19 vaccine candidate. The team attached pieces of the spike protein all over an icosahedral particle, making it look to the immune system like a virus - and got a much stronger antibody response than vaccines based on single spike pieces.
summary articles:
https://www.ipd.uw.edu/2020/10/design-of-an-ultrapotent-covid-19-vaccine-candidate/
https://newsroom.uw.edu/news/ultrapotent-covid-19-vaccine-candidate-designed-computer
Abstract of the actual paper: Elicitation of potent neutralizing antibody responses by designed protein nanoparticle vaccines for SARS-CoV-2
10 candidates are in phase III (testing on human). Pfizer/BioNTech/PhosunPharma claims 90% efficacity (not peer reviewed) and got EU contract for 200 000 000 doses:
https://vac-lshtm.shinyapps.io/ncov_vaccine_landscape/
Companies are already producing support material. First vaccine is supposed to be for april 2021.
The 10 candidates in phase III are based on following methods:
2 RNA
4 non-replicating viral vector
3 inactivated
1 protein subunit
If you want to test a vaccine on yourself, contacts are here (for US)
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04368728