Last week I attended the talk by GRF Ty about his work creating vaccines. I didn’t learn too much about specific vaccination techniques but I was very interested in a pathogen he mentioned, Francisella tularensis. This is a bacterium that, due to a variety of factors including the ability to be aerosolized, low dose needed to kill, and its very high virulence, is considered a prime target for bioweapons. Bioweapons are actually talked about surprisingly little today: I think more credence is given to nuclear and chemical weapons, so I thought I would try and look at the current state of precautions against them.

As an example, take anthrax. caused by Bacillus anthracis. Looking at CDC documentation on the current vaccination situation (https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/anthrax/public/index.html) there is a vaccine available, but there is nowhere enough supply in the case of an attack. In addition, it can form endospores when necessary: small capsules that are resistant to most methods of destruction besides boiling. This makes it particularly easy to transport, as it was in envelopes during the 2001 attacks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_anthrax_attacks).

Another example is smallpox. Smallpox is extremely virulent, and basically the only disease that as of 2018 we have completely eradicated in the wild. However, there is still samples of the virus in the US and Russia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox_virus_retention_controversy) over which there’s still a controversy over whether to destroy the samples. If a bad actor got ahold of one of these samples, there would be little in their way since vaccines aren’t produced anymore. This could be further compounded by growing the strain until it mutated into something that was resistant against current vaccines.

There is also substantial historical precedence for such programs. In the 70’s the Soviet’s tested smallpox as a potential weapon: one accidental release over the Aral Sea caused a smallpox outbreak (citation: https://smile.amazon.com/Soviet-Biological-Weapons-Program-History/dp/0674047702). In addition, during the Rhodesian Bush War water supplies were deliberately contaminated with cholera (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodesian_Bush_War). Again, these kinds of weapons are particularly problematic because they can very easily be mutated in isolation to be immune to known techniques.

Ty Moeller explained his work with vaccines very well, especially to someone like me who does not speak science! He explained how vaccines can come from live bacteria, dead bacteria or by using cell parts to invoke an immune response. There is so much tedious and time-consuming work that goes into developing new vaccines. Ty was able to explain first the basics of how the immune system works constantly to protect us and then how the role of vaccines plays into that process. I got the most value from this Rose Café in the fact that I gained a better understanding of what the vaccine medications I permit doctors to administer me are actually doing to my body and also what questions to ask in order to be informed about what type of vaccines there are.

Another interesting part of the discussion was Ty Moellers work here at Cornell that it funded by the Department of Defense. Ty works to create a vaccine for bacteria that is considered a bio threat. These bacteria may be transmitted through the air and easy made into an aerosol form. It was originally engineered during the Cold War but now poses a serious risk in the eyes of the government. Using sugars and parts of cell membranes we constantly work to engineer new vaccines in novel ways.

For this Rose Cafe GRF Tyler Moeller discussed how he was working on understanding and building new vaccines. I think a lot of people don’t understand how difficult, time consuming, and the amount of money required to develop a new vaccine. I think it is interesting (and perhaps a bit sad) that at least in the lab Tyler works in, an easy way to obtain funding for research is through the Defense Department’s fear of a biological weapon.

The complexity in which the human immune system works was amazing to learn about, and we only had a very basic overview of the entire biological mechanism. Most mechanisms in biology, like Protein synthesis or the body’s stress response, have so many “moving” parts. From a knowledge standpoint this makes it hard to fully understand how these mechanisms work in the first place. But from an engineering standpoint, these essentially over-engineered systems proved multiple access points from which we can alter and modify. Finally, we are beginning to know enough about how biological systems, such as the immune response, work mechanistically. Now we can start to move forward by engineering solutions to problems like diseases which we could only hope to treat symptoms, never fix at the source. Biomedical engineering is hopefully going to take us into the future.

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.

Although I am a non-biology major, I still found great value in, and was quite intrigued by, Ty Moeller’s talk on vaccines. Coming into the discussion, I had little idea on how vaccines actually worked, let alone the science or methodology behind their effectiveness. Therefore, it was very interesting to learn how an integral and vital part of us as humans operates both in our bodies, as well as in our society.

One of the most interesting facts about vaccines, to me, was how there are three different kinds of vaccines that can be put in our bodies: live, attenuated, and one from cell parts. I didn’t know there were any direct differences between vaccines, or that some actually place a living virus inside our bodies. I also found it fascinating how vaccines can contain cell parts, such as parts of some toxins, which are harmless to our bodies, but are used so our bodies could recognize the toxins and develop an immunity.

As interesting as it was to hear about how vaccines operate, it was also fascinating to hear about Ty’s research with an agent that is categorized as a bioterrorist threat, francisella tularensis. In the media, we typically hear about threats such as mass shootings and bombings. However, bioterrorism is still a present threat to society, which is why I find it interesting that Ty and other researchers are attempting to come up with a vaccine in order to save people in the event that bioterrorism and francisella tularensis is used for conflict or war. It was also fascinating to hear that Ty’s research was partly funded by the United States Government, as the government wants to be able to have a vaccine for certain bioterrorist agents like francisella tularensis in case they are used in possible conflict.

Although I still do not completely understand the biology around vaccines, I am now more informed about an integral part of our survival as humans. Without people like Ty doing research and developing vaccines, we as humans would be susceptible to many dangerous and deadly viruses and diseases. Now, next time I get a vaccine, I will appreciate the biology, as well as the research and development, that went into making an effective vaccination.

Vaccines are so much cooler than I thought they were. There are a lot of aspects of bacteria that aren’t very well understood. The basics about our immune system are as follows. White blood cells interact and tract down the “bad guys” aka bacteria. They find the bacteria once they get inside our bodies through cuts, blood, our breath, or spoiled food and then kill them to keep us healthy. GRF Tyler works with bacteria to try and find new ways to vaccinate us. He is trying to replicate the sugars on the outside of bacterium cells and use them on proteins to then put into vaccines to fight against a disease that is very hard to pronounce. It originates from wild rabbits and is very rare but was created in the form of a bio-weapon during World War 2 so the defense agency is funding his research. Vaccines can either use live bacteria in small doses or reengineered bacteria that is less harmful than the live version and injected into our bloodstream to create antibodies that jumpstart the process of making memory cells that our body can use if we come into contact with the actual infection later on. Although his research was way over my head I was fascinated by what he was studying and creating and the advancements in medicine he is a part of. Thank you for your hard work Tyler!

What struck me most about this talk was the realization that outbreaks for diseases we thought were obsolete, still occur, and that vaccines cannot always keep up with the evolution of a viruses and pathogens. For example, the was a reference to a serious outbreak of a disease at Princeton in 2014 which affected a good portion of the college campus. I think we sometimes take our “immunity” for granted, but there was so much history and hard work leading up to the public health measures that we have today. Also it was interested to learn the difference between the injected flu vaccine and the one that’s taken via a nose spray. The one via a nose spray actually has a live (attenuated?) virus while the one injected is less dangerous. I thought this was a really interesting fun fact.

On Wednesday, I attended the Rose Cafe where GRF Ty led a discussion about his research with vaccines.  He explained how vaccines worked at a level that everyone could follow, and I learned quite a bit about the immune system and his research.  Ty started by describing how our immune systems protect us. For example, white blood cells continuously check for foreign pathogens and the body makes antibodies that recognize pathogens.  Vaccines help the body by teaching it what a certain kind of pathogen looks like, so that the body can immediately fight it if found later on.

Ty went on to describe how vaccines are made.  Some vaccines are made from the sugar coating of pathogens, while others may use other parts.  These sugar (carbohydrate) vaccines tend to be less effective, however. As a result, more effective vaccines made by attaching sugars to proteins have been produced.  Effective vaccines trigger a response from T-cells (a type of white blood cell), when they meet a certain threshold.

Ty also explained the challenges with making vaccines as bacteria become more resistant.  For example, newer strains of bacteria may bear no resemblance to older strains, and the immune system does not detect these strains.  In addition, bacteria may hide in host cells or pretend to be normal cells to evade detection by the immune system. The Meningitis B outbreak at Princeton and elsewhere was an example of this latter case.  

We also learned about Ty’s research aiming to engineer a vaccine for Francisella tularensis, using a new kind of vaccine with outer membrane vesicles.  This pathogen is a bioterrorist threat since it is virulent in aerosol form, and Ty’s research group has received funding from the US Department of Defense to develop a vaccine for it.  Lastly, Ty discussed the potential for vaccines to aid in cancer treatment and the field of immunotherapy.

Overall, I enjoyed this talk, as it gave an inside look into something that we often take for granted: vaccines.  The talk gave me a greater appreciation for researchers like Ty who are working to keep people healthy and safe, and I look forward to hearing about new breakthroughs from his lab in the future.  

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.

Yesterday I attended the Rose Cafe on engineering vaccines. Even though I am an engineering student, I have not taken a biology course since my freshman year of high school, so the extent of knowledge that I came in with on the immune system was approximately, “There are these things called T-cells, which do something to help fight off infections.” Fortunately, GRF Tyler’s presentation did not require much more knowledge than that. I had done some research on vaccines for a project later on in high school, so I knew about the three main types of vaccines: live-attenuated, inactivated, and subunit vaccines. While I understood that the third type involved using cell parts, I did not really understand how it worked before attending the cafe. In particular, I never would have considered the importance of sugars on the surface of cells, and that certain sugars can cause an immune response. I also never really understood why booster shots are needed for some types of vaccines, but not others. Apparently it is because some vaccines are better at causing a response from the T-cells, which is necessary for long-term immunity. So the key to effective vaccines is not just causing an immune response, but more specifically causing a T-cell response. In fact, sometimes–such as the attempts to make a vaccine out of sugar alone–the immune system (in particular, B-cells) responds so quickly and efficiently that the T-cells have no need to respond. That was never a problem that I would have considered existing.

I learned a lot at this Rose Cafe. Vaccines are fascinating and I cannot believe that I knew so little before. We have these vaccines put in our bodies since birth, and yet a lot of people have no idea how they work, or what kind they should get. There are many different types of vaccines out their and all of them function a little differently. GRF Tyler was very knowledgeable about his research, which was fascinating. I had never thought that the Department of Defense funded vaccine research, but now it makes sense, and I feel a little safer. It is mind boggling that there is so much bacteria and other things that could kill a human so easily and yet our body fights it all off. The body is an amazing machine, and I am glad to know more about it now.

Last night, I attended GRF Tyler Moeller’s Rose Cafe about engineering vaccines. It was a bit of a culture shock for me, having not taken a biology class since junior year of high school; however, Tyler was very careful to keep the information general enough to cater to an audience that was not familiar with the intricacies of immunology. Due to the low level of detail, I found it easy to follow along and appreciate the conceptual topics. As a PhD student, Tyler is currently studying two subsets of vaccine engineering. The first is the creation of a vaccination for Francisella tularensis, a rare but extremely infectious bacteria that was researched by the USSR and the USA during the Cold War because of its potential uses as a weapon on bioterrorism. This research is being funded by the Defense Department and, to my understanding, is more of a precautionary measure than any preemptive attempt to combat the bacteria; if there was an outbreak, the vaccine could be distributed to minimize casualties, but it would not be administered without any immediate threat.

Tyler’s research also delves into the function of vaccines and how they actually do what they do, a topic I found fascinating. Tyler spoke briefly about the trajectory of vaccine research and what is on the cutting edge. Though still in very early stages, work is being done to potentially engineer antibodies to mark cancer cells as a form of immunotherapy.  Additionally, researchers are looking at new ways to make vaccines more effective, such as using different parts of the cells of the bacteria that cause the target diseases to trigger the body into making more memory cells, resulting in a longer lasting vaccine. Vaccines are something many of us take for granted in our lives, so it was interesting to learn more about exactly how they are made and they continue to be modified and improved.

At today’s rose cafe, GRF Ty spoke with us about his research. Let me preface this by saying I’m in ILR. From my understanding, he is attempting to create vaccines from cell sugars. First, he gave us some background. White blood cells find bacteria and kill them to keep us healthy. The immune system detects foreign pathogens by patrolling white blood cells. Vaccines inject mutated parts of the virus / bacteria so our body can create antibodies against them. But if this vaccine is not created correctly, the process can go wrong.

Ty’s research is commissioned by the Defense Department to invent emergency vaccines against bioweapon viruses. And he is attempting to do so using the sugar on the surface of the cell. From my understanding, new attempts at cancer vaccines are utilizing this method.

As a social science major, I cannot really comment on the actual science going on here. But I can say that I am excited that constant new methods towards bettering lives are not only tested but continuously improved and implemented. Ty represents the future of STEM and the future of forces aiming to better humanity. And for that, I am very thankful.