Revolutionizing Vaccines
Jerry Yan's work on safer and more effective subunit vaccines.
Jerry Yan is a Ph.D. student at Stanford University, interested in exploring the use of biomaterials for drug delivery and immunology-related applications. He is currently a member of The Appel Research Group which focuses on using supramolecular biomaterials to improve areas of society, specifically advanced materials and health. Jerry and I conducted an interview to discuss one of his recent works and his journey as a scientist.
Jerry’s work focuses on developing new vaccine technologies. As opposed to our conventional vaccines that trigger an immune response by giving the patient's body an antigen, Jerry’s lab researched a type of subunit vaccine; these vaccines only include specific antigens that are highly purified proteins or synthetic peptides. Subunit vaccines are thus far safer than conventional approaches as they do not trigger as potent of an immune response, making them suitable for individuals with compromised immune systems. However, subunit vaccines have one main issue where the antigens are too small to be recognized by the host immune system, thereby reducing the immunogenicity potential of this vaccine approach. To mitigate this issue, subunit vaccines also include adjuvants, an ingredient that helps elicit an immune response strong enough to protect the person from the disease he is being vaccinated against.
Jerry’s lab has found a promising target for generating neutralizing antibodies called SARS-CoV-2, specifically its receptor binding domain (RBD). Although RBD is easily manufactured and highly stable, RBD-based subunit vaccines have been hampered by their poor inherent immunogenicity. Thus, Jerry’s lab hypothesized that they could solve this issue by adding an adjuvant called cGAMP. To test their hypothesis, the lab mimicked how a viral infection would naturally occur by creating an artificial immunological niche. This niche enables the slow release of cGAMP and RBD. They tested their vaccine against two dose-matched liquid controls and a hydrogel-based vaccine lacking cGAMP. They concluded that their vaccine elicited more potent, durable, and broad antibody responses than of the other three vaccines. They also concluded that the vaccine is suitable for the delivery of other antigens and may provide enhanced immunity against a broad range of diseases.
One of Jerry’s main goals for the vaccine industry is to improve the availability of vaccines so that everyone can receive quality treatment for diseases. Luckily, another advantage of subunit vaccines that was not mentioned is their stability. One of the main issues with our current vaccines is that they are very hard to transport and distribute globally as they need to be held in very specific containers at very cold temperatures. If an error occurs during the transport process where the vaccine is not under adequate conditions, the vaccines can quickly become denatured, meaning that they can no longer be used. These obstacles have resulted in it being almost impossible to distribute vaccines globally as errors constantly occur in the transport process, rendering most of the vaccines useless by the time they get to their destination. Thus, some countries, specifically impoverished nations without proper healthcare systems, fail to receive proper treatment for diseases. Thus, discovering that subunit vaccines can be a legitimate alternative to our current methods is a promising sign for Jerry’s goal. Jerry also noted that their final discovery was extremely important as being able to provide “enhanced immunity against a broad range of diseases” means that people will need to take fewer vaccines as one vaccine may take care of multiple strains of a singular disease.
The second topic that we discussed with Jerry was his journey. Jerry had an unconventional beginning to his scientific career as he was not entirely sure what field he wanted to pursue. He eventually decided to pick his path by simply picking whatever sounded interesting from the course offerings. He went on to complete his Bachelor's of Science at John Hopkins University degree, however, the stress and overwhelming environment caused him to leave and go to Stanford in pursuit of his Ph.D. in Bioengineering, He ultimately found a lot of success at Stanford and is loving his work. His experience shows us that you do not need to have your career immediately figured out or your life path set up. His passion and enthusiasm for science were far more important than any planned path or roadmap. While we may think that having a certain path ensures success, life can take you in unexpected directions and completely alter your course. While these changes may seem catastrophic in the short term, life has a way of eventually putting you in a better situation.
Sources:
https://www.supramolecularbiomaterials.com/
https://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-a-Subunit-Vaccine.aspx
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/adjuvants.html#:~:text=An%20adjuvant%20is%20an%20ingredient,adjuvants%20help%20vaccines%20work%20better