I really enjoyed Ty’s explanation of his research at the Rose Cafe on Wednesday. I didn’t understand much about vaccines and modern vaccine development before the talk, so it was pretty enlightening. Most of my understanding of vaccines and the immune system was from a trip to a revolutionary war barracks in fourth grade, during which a period actor described the rationale behind the smallpox vaccine while threatening us with a needle.

It’s fascinating how the sugars on the surface of different bacteria are used as identifiers for bacteria, and can be used to create vaccines induce the body to protect itself from those bacteria. It’s also interesting how many strains of bacteria have characteristics that prevent us from using these sugars to develop vaccines against them.

I like how Ty was using his research to not only develop the specific vaccine that the Defense Department wanted but also develop new methods that would be useful to everyone. It seems unlikely that we will need to use the vaccine that the Defense Department wants him to create, but the general method of creating vaccines that he is researching sounds incredibly useful in the long term.