Time - USA (2020-09-21)

34 Time September 21/September 28, 2020

Science

Warp Speed would collect data from the
pilot sites to refine plans for allocating
vaccines to the rest of the country. “Our
goal,” said CDC director Dr. Robert Red-
field in August, “is to ensure no delay in
the handoff between FDA authorizing a
vaccine and implementation of vaccina-
tion programs nationwide.” That all de-
pends, of course, on whether the tens of
thousands of volunteers receiving COVID-
19 vaccine candidates in current studies
develop strong immune responses to
SARS-CoV-2 without serious side effects.

When Carol Kelly, an associate nutri-
tion director at Emory University Student
Health, saw a request on her NextDoor
app in April seeking volunteers to partic-
ipate in a nearby study for a COVID-19
vaccine candidate, she was immediately
intrigued. She called up and found out
that this particular study would test a
vaccine based on a new genetic technol-
ogy. No vaccine using this technology has
been approved, although a handful, for
diseases like respiratory syncytial virus
and influenza, are in trials. “They said that
it contains the genetic code of the virus.
That kind of gave me pause,” Kelly says.
But she signed up anyway. “I felt helpless
seeing the health care providers working
so hard... I thought, If there is one little
thing I can do to hurry and help the ad-
vancement of a solution, why not?”
The Emory study is testing a vaccine
co-developed by scientists from NIAID
and Moderna. If successful, it could pio-
neer a new way of churning out vaccines
that would be the fastest in history. Some
existing vaccines, including shots for in-
fluenza, require manufacturers to grow,
over a period of weeks, massive amounts
of virus or bacteria, then disable them in
the lab so they can’t cause disease but are
still foreign enough to alert and activate
human immune systems to mount de-
fenses against them.
A major reason Moderna has been able
to move so fast is that it bypasses this pro-
cess and relies instead on mRNA, the ge-
netic material that codes for proteins.
On Jan. 10, Chinese scientists posted the
first complete genome sequence of SARS-
CoV-2; just 42 days later, the Moderna
and NIAID teams had used that code to
identify which parts of the viral genome
would make good targets for building a
vaccine— specifically, the code for the spike

protein that defines SARS-CoV-2. Encir-

cling the virus’s outer shell like a crown,

the spike protein also serves as the lock-

picker for breaking into healthy human

cells. Once inside, SARS-CoV-2 hijacks

those cells’ machinery to pump out more

copies of itself to spread throughout the

body and continue its mission of infecting

and replicating. The way Dr. Stephen Hoge,

president of Moderna, sees it, “mRNA is

really like a software molecule in biology.

So our vaccine is like the software pro-

gram to the body, which then goes and

makes the [viral] proteins that can gener-

ate an immune response.” Moderna pro-

duced and shipped its first vial of vaccine

BUILDING COVID-19 VACCINES

Once injected, vaccines instruct cells to make pieces of the virus ...

Vaccines prime the

immune system to

recognize and combat

viruses or bacteria.

SARS-CoV-2 vaccines do

this by making it easier for

the body to seek out the

spike proteins that make

up the virus’s shell.

Lead company’s

progress

0 PRECLINICAL TESTING

1 SAFETY TRIALS

2 EXPANDED TRIALS

3 EFFECTIVENESS TRIALS

4 APPROVAL

5 PRODUCTION

SARS-COV-2

VIRAL GENOME

SPIKE

PROTEINS

SPIKE

PROTEIN

CODE

PROTEIN

S P I K E S

DISABLED

VIRUS

HUMAN CELL

NUCL

EUS

ESTABLISHED

1 Disabled virus, viral

vector, DNA and RNA

vaccines use healthy

cells to make viral

proteins

(^2) Protein-based
vaccines don’t
enter cells but
directly release
viral proteins

77 IN DEVELOPMENT

SPIKE

PROTEINS

These vaccines contain

parts of the virus that can

stimulate the immune

system. In the case of SARS-

CoV-2, these are the spike-

protein structures. Vaccines

for shingles and HPV, among

others, are made this way.

SANOFI and GLAXO-

SMITHKLINE partnered to

combine their expertise

0 1 2 3 4 5

PROTEIN-BASED

SARS-COV-2

18 IN DEVELOPMENT

FULL

GENOME

This method produced the

Salk polio, MMR and rabies

vaccines and relies on a

weakened or inactive form of

the virus that can rev up the

immune system just enough

to fight off infection but not

cause disease.

SINOVAC is building on its

SARS research from 2002,

speeding up the process

0 1 2 3 4 5

DISABLED VIRUS