annickae

Flu Vaccine Coverage

We’ve talked about the flu vaccine here before but we focused much more on vaccine design! In this post I talk more about flu vaccine coverage – what can you expect your annual shot to cover, how the coverage is determined, and why! I also go over the history of flu vaccine efficacy and whatContinue reading “Flu Vaccine Coverage”

Monkeypox Update

Since I first posted this summary infographic a few things have changed… but a lot has stayed the same! The cumulative global count has continued to go up (now at more than 16k) which led the WHO to declare it a global healthy emergency this past weekend. Because mode of transmission is not anything likeContinue reading “Monkeypox Update”

Orthopoxvirus

Orthopoxviruses come from the poxiviridae family of viruses. They are responsible for several diseases, most notably smallpox and (now) monkeypox. They are brick-shaped, enveloped, and highly complex viruses about 250nM wide and around 300nM wide. This virus contains a very long (170-150kb) linear double-stranded DNA genome. Cell entry is mediated by the membrane proteins thatContinue reading “Orthopoxvirus”

Moderna’s Bivalent C19 Vaccines

Let’s talk about Moderna’s two bivalent C19 vaccine booster candidates! Vaccine names: – mRNA1273 or Spikevax (original) – mRNA1273.211 (bivalent with original + beta) – mRNA1273.214 (bivalent with original + omicron) mRNA1273.211 data was announced earlier this year, includes 6 months of follow-up data, and is published as a preprint. mRNA1273.214 data was announced byContinue reading “Moderna’s Bivalent C19 Vaccines”

Monkeypox 101

📚Monkeypox 101 A cheat-sheet to our current Monkeypox situation. Along the left-hand side you have a very simplified lineage of orthopoxviruses (the genus of virus that both Monkeypox and Smallpox derive from). I wanted to make it easier to understand how closely related these two diseases are. The lineage also highlights another orthopoxvirus – vacciniaContinue reading “Monkeypox 101”

Celebrate Pride Month

🏳️‍🌈What does it mean to celebrate pride month? 🎈It means celebrating inordinate self-esteem, immense self-respect, and delight or elation in identity. 🍊It means celebrating and applauding our fellow LGBTQIA+ neighbors, friends, family, and coworkers who have to work harder than their cis/hetero counterparts to feel this way. 🔅It means cheering on and acting as advocatesContinue reading “Celebrate Pride Month”

Residual Impurity Assay

Continuing a deeper dive into analytical development, let’s talk about residual impurity assays! It’s important to understand that during the production of biologics (proteins, nucleic acids, viruses) and small molecules it is inevitable that things will be introduced throughout that you want to remove through purification. For example, viruses are produced by cells in cultureContinue reading “Residual Impurity Assay”

US Army COVID-19 Vaccine

You may have heard talk of pan-coronavirus vaccines in the works! One such vaccine is being developed by the US Army. Scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) have developed a vaccine against coronavirus with pre-clinical data suggesting that it has the ability to neutralize several SARS-CoV-2 variants (COVID-19) along with SARS-CoV-1Continue reading “US Army COVID-19 Vaccine”

Functional Potency Assay

Continuing a deeper dive into analytical development, we’ll start by talking about my favorite characterization assay (experiment/method/protocol) – the functional potency assessment! This particular characterization method is a way of quantifying how well the drug is able to execute the desired biochemical interactions within the cell in order to result in the expected therapeutic effect.Continue reading “Functional Potency Assay”