How a new vaccine adjuvant might shorten race to COVID-19 immunity
This is part of our Coronavirus Update series in which Harvard specialists in epidemiology, infectious disease, economics, politics, and other disciplines offer insights into what the latest developments in the COVID-19 outbreak may bring. Uli von Andrian is the Mallinckrodt Professor of Immunopathology at Harvard Medical School and Program Leader of Basic Immunology at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard. In an interview with the Harvard Office of Technology Development (OTD), von Andrian suggests that further research and development on a class of molecules called bisphosphonates might turbocharge a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus, and help bring immunity to huge populations more quickly. OTD: Hopefully, the first COVID-19 vaccines will be approved in the coming year or so, and the demand will be overwhelming. One of the challenges will be making enough doses to ensure herd immunity. How does your work address this challenge? von Andrian: I remember when the swine...