Regardless of the companies' initiative to rush in developing and testing vaccines that fight the new Coronavirus (COVID-19), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as the National Institutes of Health, bet that that scientists, particularly the synthetic biologists, "can do even better than what's currently in the pipeline."
If, as appears quite possible, this new coronavirus turns to be a permanent part of the globe's so-called "microbial menagerie," instead of being eliminated like the previous SARS coronavirus, there is a need to have next-generation approaches to address the shortcomings of even the most innovative vaccines.
Notably, the developers of these existing vaccines take years to be able to develop and produce, they turn out to be outdated if the virus progresses, and the immune reaction they produce is frequently weak.
With funding from the Gates Foundation and NIH, the emerging synthetic biology field is responding to the SOS over the latest coronavirus, targeting to engineer vaccines, overcoming such obstacles. University of Washington's Neil King said, "It's all of us," battling the bug. Washington has been part of the quest for a coronavirus vaccine since 2017.
Synthetic Biology a Real Promise
Even though the Gates Foundation is distributing its bets among some cutting-edge vaccine platforms which include those with the use of genetic material, one that's synthetic biology-based has undoubtedly real promise.
Lynda Stuart, a physician and immunologist said, there may be a need for an approach "that can get you millions, and even billions of doses." Stuart directs Gates Foundations's vaccine research. Last month, the foundation announced it's allotting $60 million for a research project on COVID-19, including vaccines.
A vaccine, developed through the tinkering of synthetic biology, seems not just "scalable to a level of billions," but also like, it's going to work even without the need to refrigerate it. Stuart also said, "All that will be super important" for the protection of people from coronavirus, who are "otherwise left behind, like the ones in sub-Saharan Africa."
King, together with his synthetic biology colleagues were aware that there would be another coronavirus endemic such as MERS and SARS outbreaks prior to this one, saying, there is going to be "another one after this," probably from yet another kind of this virus and that, there is a need for a universal vaccine for coronavirus, he elaborated.
What Synthetic Biology can Do
Attaining that it's quite high on the to-do list of the scientists that when President Trump visited in PIH last week, part of his tour was the lab that was collaborating with UW, and the team of rasearchers showed him a mock-up of what synthetic biology can do and that is, "to design and develop nanoparticles out of proteins and attach molecules which are viral" in a repetitive range so that, when the entire thing has been packed one vaccine, it can make humans resistant to COVID-19.
With some twists, researchers found that nanoparticle can be covered with molecules from added coronaviruses to, synthetic biologists hope, shield against all types of this virus including MERS, SARS virus, and of course, critically, -the original SARS virus, MERS, and, crucially, a modified form of the COVID-19-causing infection, the SARS-CoV-2. Even compared to RNA and DNA vaccine against COVID-19 that CureVac, Inovio Pharmaceuticals and Moderna Therapeutics are fast-tracking toward human testing, the synthetic biology has advantages.
