Ayan

New episode on universal flu vaccines (and antivenoms) with @CurlyJungleJake, CEO of @centivax. They're trying to create a vaccine that protects against all strains of influenza: past, present, and future. This is obviously a difficult thing to do. Seasonal flu vaccines are designed to protect against a virus that constantly mutates and recombines in animals. The efficacy of seasonal vaccines is also quite low; ranging from about 15 to 60 percent. Instead of making vaccines that protect against only a few circulating strains of the virus, Centivax is trying to teach the immune system to recognize parts of the virus that many strains share and that resist mutation. The hope is that antibodies targeting these regions could protect even against strains we haven’t encountered yet, without scientists having to reformulate the vaccine every year. Things seem to be going well: the company has tested the vaccine in about 180 people so far and will soon begin a Phase 2 trial. This is probably the most ambitious technical interview I’ve ever done. We cover some extremely deep immunology, but Jake explained the ideas really clearly, and I left feeling like I finally understood how vaccines work and how scientists make them. I also came away much more convinced that a universal flu vaccine could work. 00:49 — Why flu vaccines need constant updating 03:07 — How influenza infects a cell 06:39 — Why our bodies don’t always make broadly-neutralizing antibodies 16:07 — Mutations and animals 23:42 — What is vaccine efficacy? 28:55 — Designing a universal flu vaccine 37:40 — The idea behind Centivax 44:16 — Clinical trials 57:33 — The business case for eradication 1:03:26 — How to eradicate the flu 1:07:26 — Could we make broad vaccines for the common cold? 1:09:07 — Building a universal snake antivenom 1:23:09 — Antivenom cocktails