I enjoyed learning about the process behind making vaccines from GRF Tyler Moeller last week. It was interesting to find out that there were different ways to make vaccines. Before this talk, I was under the impression that the nose spray vaccination and the injection vaccination contained essentially the same thing. I also enjoyed getting a glimpse of the details that must be considered when dealing with vaccines.

Many vaccines are degraded bacteria or virus that are inserted into our bloodstreams so that our bodies can learn to create antibodies. In the case of a real infection, these antibodies will speed up the defense. However, an interesting alternative may be to create antibodies outside of the body, and then insert these antibodies into the bloodstream.

Tyler also talked briefly about Maurice Hillman, an awesome scientist that was ahead of his time. He created eight of the main vaccines that we still use today. When his daughter was sick with the mumps, he developed a vaccine from a swab of her cheek. This Jeryl Lynn strain, which was named after her, is still in use.