Coronavirus vaccine created with synthetic biology would be ‘more potent’ than flu shot

| | March 23, 2020
Credit: Ian Haydon/Institute for Protein Design
This article or excerpt is included in the GLP’s daily curated selection of ideologically diverse news, opinion and analysis of biotechnology innovation.

As companies hurry to test potential vaccines, the National Institute of Health (NIH) is hoping new bio-engineering techniques to help us restrain coronavirus—and its next mutation, too.

As reported by Sharon Begley in STAT, NIH is looking toward synthetic biology for the next advancement in vaccination development. This research is funded, in part, by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s $100 million commitment to strengthening global “detection, isolation, and treatment efforts” directed at COVID-19.

Scientists begin the process by engineering nanoparticles out of proteins. Using a computational algorithm, they experiment with a million variants to discover the optimal structure. This structure not only allows the nanoparticle to house the viral antigens, but arranges those antigens for maximal arousal of the body’s immune response.

Related article:  Why synthetic biology is about much more than resurrecting woolly mammoths

After lab-crafting DNA to code for the nanoparticle, the scientists place it in E. coli bacteria. Once the bacteria begin manufacturing the desired protein, it is extracted, purified, and studded with viral antigens.

“If tests in lab animals of the first such nanoparticle vaccine are any indication, it should be more potent than either old-fashioned viral vaccines like those for influenza or the viral antigens on their own (without the nanoparticle),” Begley writes.

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